Virginia Tech, Children’s National Hospital award $100,000 to fund collaborative cancer research pilot projects
Children’s National Hospital and Virginia Tech have awarded two $50,000 one-year pilot grants to multi-institutional teams of scientists for pediatric brain cancer research.
The inter-institutional program, which launched in December, promotes cross-disciplinary collaborations among researchers at both institutions. At Virginia Tech, the program is part of the Virginia Tech Cancer Research Alliance. Financial support for the program was provided by the Offices of the Physician-in-Chief and Chief Academic Officer at Children’s National, and by Virginia Tech’s Office of the Vice President for Health Sciences and Technology.
Congratulations to Susan Campbell, an assistant professor from the School of Neuroscience and animal and poultry sciences. Campbell and Yuan Zhu (the Gilbert Family Professor of Neurofibromatosis Research at Children’s National) were awarded funds to study glioma-induced seizures in mice with a genetic mutation that inhibits the production of P53, a key protein involved in suppressing cancer cell growth and division.