$15,000 Gift Helps Lead to $330,000 Grant

How does one foundational Heroes Foundation grant make a larger impact? Consider this latest news from IU Simon Cancer Center.

Dr. Grzegorz Nalepa, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at IU Simon Cancer Center, learned in late July that he is the recipient of a $330,000 leukemia research grant from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Only nine new St. Baldrick’s Scholar awards were granted across the United States, and Dr. Nalepa is the only recipient from Indiana. Dr. Nalepa says the data that he used to apply for this grant was generated through work previously funded in part by the Heroes Foundation!

The Heroes Foundation awarded Dr. Nalepa a $15,000 grant in 2015 to support his work screening the human genome. Just days before learning of his St. Baldrick’s grant, the Heroes Foundation awarded Dr. Nalepa an additional $30,000. Dr. Nalepa is hunting for genes that will lead to a cancer-fighting therapy to selectively destroy tumor cells without hurting healthy tissues. You can learn more about his work in our 2015 Annual Report.

Following is the announcement from the IU School of Medicine:

Nalepa receives three-year, $330,000 grant for leukemia research

Grzegorz Nalepa, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics, biochemistry, and medical and molecular genetics at the IU School of Medicine, has been awarded a three-year, $330,000 grant for leukemia research from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.

Dr. Nalepa’s grant was one of 79 awarded by the foundation in July, for a total of $22 million. The privately funded foundation, created in 2004, supports research and academic training focused on pediatric cancer.

The grant will fund Dr. Nalepa’s research into cancer-specific mutations that are potential targets for treatment and could make possible more personalized treatments that would be more effective with fewer side effects for children with leukemia and inherited bone marrow failure syndromes.

Dr. Nalepa, a specialist in pediatric oncology-hematology, is a member of the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research and the IU Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center.