Logan (above) is fighting neuroblastoma. Approximately 700 kids in the U.S. are diagnosed with neuroblastoma each year. Read Logan's story here. 

Xingguo Li, PhD  at the University of Rochester in New York is investigating how to target and stop a newly discovered pathway which drives neuroblastoma.

The problem:

Despite aggressive therapy, approximately half of high-risk neuroblastoma patients die from the disease.  While researchers have a large amount of childhood cancer genomic data, much of that information hasn’t yet been translated into effective therapies and treatments, especially for cancers like neuroblastoma which have low incidence rates of gene mutations.

How his research will help:

Dr. Li and his team will help fill this void by exploring a newly discovered pathway that drives neuroblastoma. They will also develop new potential druggable targets in neuroblastoma patients that have never been tried before. The concepts and mechanisms uncovered by his work may have broad significance for other pathways which are responsible for starting other childhood cancers as well.

“The CCRF grant will provide an amazing opportunity to support neuroblastoma research in my laboratory, at a time when we need it most,” said Dr. Li.  “It will give us the ability to stabilize the research team and to move our work forward at a much faster pace.”

Additionally, data generated from research supported by the CCRF will allow his lab to stand a good chance of obtaining long-term, larger federal funding to continue his work and translate it into improved therapies for children. “We, as a team, have decided that we need to try to make a difference, using leading-edge research to bring light to those fighting a battle,” he said.