Projects

Weill Cornell Medical College

Seed capital provided for the focus on the Conventional Enhanced Delivery method enabling the delivery of exotoxins and monoclonal antibodies through the catheters and other methods in bypassing the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB.)

Children’s Healthcare of Los Angeles

Focusing on the use of genetic, histologic and metabolic features of brain tumors using MR spectroscopy, CHLA has been able to determine that citrate and its level of presence predicts the future risk for disease progression. This finding which is outstanding is now continuing to be tested with hopes of being able to predict change and therefore advise on future actions to be taken by patients and oncologists on individual basis’.

Georgia Tech /Emory /Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

Project to create a clear delineation of tumor margins for resection during surgery. With approximately 35% of all surgeries resulting in residual tumor left in the child, using nanotechnology to mark tumor margins clearly “with a blue solution” so as to provide surgeons accurate visual clues for resection during surgery we are hopeful that surgeons will be able to resects all of the tumor safely while sparing only healthy cells.

Georgia Tech /Emory/Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

With time being the most sacred possession to a child and their family, this project focuses on the creation of a solution using nanotechnology which will in fact band a tumor in order to inhibit its growth, shrink the tumor, and give a child, their oncologists and surgeons time to act accordingly.

Georgia Tech /Emory /Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

Project to identify a novel nano carrier based intervention that limits the spread of brain tumors enabling conventional chemotherapy to be effective for invasive tumors. To date the success that we have seen is the first demonstration of invasive tumors being successfully treated with chemotherapy and this in turn is possible do to our ability to limit tumor spread with nanotechnology. Results to be published shortly.

Georgia Tech /Emory /Children’s healthcare of Atlanta

The migration of tumors and excavation of cells. By directing the tumor cells away from the interior of the brain to a location where they can be removed or killed more safely, this project if successful has the potential to open a new avenue for the treatment of other invasive solid tumors such as brain stem tumors. This may prove to be a “game changing” event for cancers that were thought to be incurable because they are located in an inoperable region and/or because they are resistant or inaccessible to the delivery of chemotherapy agents. This project received the “EUREKA” award, (Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration) the first time ever won by anyone in Georgia’s history, and a 1 million dollar grant from the NIH. This research would not have been possible without IFF.

NYU/Langone Center

The focus of this lab is the investigation of Sprouty family of proteins, which are known to regulate the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK in other tumors, are active in pediatric low-grade gliomas. The aim is to study the expression of Sprouty in pediatric low-grade astrocytoma specimens with different genetic alterations of the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK pathway. From this research, the expectation is to learn how to better select molecular targeted drugs directed at this pathway.

University of Pittsburgh

This project will focus on MR and PET Biomarkers of pediatric brain tumors. The combination of innovative MR imaging with strategies to improve characterization, prognostication and treatment monitoring of pediatric brain tumors with aims of utilizing [18F] FLT and sodium MR imaging to non-invasively characterize the proliferation index of pediatric brain tumors. In addition, the lab will also aim to develop a reliable in-vivo marker of apoptosis for early assessment of therapy for pediatric brain tumors. A second part of this lab will be to focus on therapeutic approaches that block rationally selected combinations of growth signaling pathways or that enhance cell death signaling which will provide a novel strategy for inducing glioma cytotoxicity.

“All having been funded at and incurring ZERO indirect costs!!!!!!”