Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Awarded $2.5 Million to Develop Nanotherapy Against Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia

URL: http://www.chla.org/site/apps/nl/newsletter2.asp?c=ipINKTOAJsG&b=6089699#.UYnNuKJaXjI

Fatih Uckun, MD, PhD of the Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has been awarded $2.5 million from the National Cancer Institute(NCI) to support development of a new class of anti-cancer drugs against acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of cancer in children and adolescents. 

CONTACT: Ellin Kavanagh at (323) 361-8505

LOS ANGELES (August 2, 2010) – Fatih Uckun, MD, PhD of the Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has been awarded $2.5 million from the National Cancer Institute(NCI) to support development of a new class of anti-cancer drugs against acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of cancer in children and adolescents. 

Uckun and his colleagues have been developing rationally-designed and cancer-specific nanomedicines that target the survival machinery of leukemia cells as potent cancer “smart bombs”.  “Our long-term goal is to translate recent research discoveries in nanotechnology and biotherapy into effective patient-tailored treatment programs for the most common form of childhood cancer,” explains Dr. Uckun, who is also a professor of research pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. The work will be accomplished in close collaboration with other member institutions of the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer.

Nanotechnology refers to science and engineering performed on a molecular level.  Applied to oncology, nanotherapeutics can target the infrastructure of cancer. 

“The development of these nanomedicines will be a significant step forward to overcome chemotherapy resistance in childhood leukemia,” added Dr. Paul Gaynon, professor of pediatrics and medical director of the Therapeutic Advances in Childhood Leukemia consortium.

“We are excited about these novel nanomedicines because they may provide the foundation for therapeutic innovation against childhood cancer,” said Dr. Stuart Siegel, director of the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. 

The Saban Research Institute at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is among the largest and most productive pediatric research facilities in the United States, with 100 investigators at work on 186 laboratory studies, clinical trials and community-based research and health services. The Saban Research Institute is ranked eighth in National Institutes of Health funding among children’s hospitals in the United States.

Founded in 1901, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is one of the nation’s leading children’s hospitals and is acknowledged worldwide for its leadership in pediatric and adolescent health. Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is one of only seven children’s hospitals in the nation – and the only children’s hospital on the West Coast – ranked for two consecutive years in all 10 pediatric specialties in the U.S. News & World Report rankings and named to the magazine’s “Honor Roll” of children’s hospitals.

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is a premier teaching hospital and has been affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California since 1932.