Rally Foundation distributes $700,000 nationwide to support childhood cancer research

Rally Foundation, a national non-profit organization committed to research to fight childhood cancer, has announced its annual funding allocation for 2011 and has selected 15 hospitals across the country to receive more than $700,000.The funds distributed by Rally Foundation come from corporate contributions, individual donations, as well as local fundraising events, often organized by communities with families impacted by childhood cancer.  Rally Foundation and its medical advisory board, which includes childhood cancer researchers from across the country, evaluate funding proposals annually to determine which projects to fund.  The Rally Foundation is recognized by the Local Independent Charities of America as a leader in efficiency among non-profits and has established a competitive peer review process for determining its annual funding allocations.

Since its founding in 2005, the Rally Foundation has distributed more than $2.2 million to more than 50 projects nationwide to support childhood cancer research, including basic science, fellowships and clinical trials.

Unknown to many are the facts that children are afflicted by different cancers than adults, that childhood cancer is the number one disease killer of children ages 0-15 in the United States, and that childhood cancer research is severely underfunded each year.

"Communities across the country have joined Rally," said Dean Crowe, Founder and CEO of Rally. "It is our hope that, one day soon, new and more effective research will eliminate all childhood cancer."

Highlights of Rally's 2011 grants include:

• Baylor University – Waco, Texas, oncogene and therapeutic target in Medulloblastoma
• Children's Healthcare of Atlanta – Atlanta, for the Carter Martin Experimental Research Fund
• Children's Memorial – Chicago, for malignant Rhabdoid Tumors
• Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital - Cleveland, for low-grade Gliomas
• Columbia University Medical Center – New York, for T-ALL
• Emory University – Atlanta, metabolic reprogramming for pediatric AML therapy
• Medical University of South Carolina - Charleston, S.C. for Neuroblastoma
• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center – New York, characterization of Burkitt Lymphoma
• Northwestern University – Chicago, targeted therapy for Down's Syndrome and ALL
• Pediatric Cancer Foundation - Tampa, Fla., for relapsed ALL trial
• Seattle Children's Hospital- Seattle, early phase trials and biologic specimen collection
• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital – Memphis, Tenn., late effects study
• The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia – Philadelphia, for Neuroblastoma
• The Regents of the University of California – San Francisco, for high-grade pediatric Gliomas
• The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, N.C., survivorship hotline
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center – Nashville, Tenn., for treatment of Neuroblastoma

"Rally's grants were instrumental in our lab gathering key data to validate our successful 2011 application for NIH funding, which was in the top two percent of projects funded," said Dr. Ferrando, a Rally-funded researcher at Columbia University. "We are very grateful for Rally providing critical grants for our innovative research that will lead to more breakthroughs in successfully treating childhood cancers."