The University of Louisville has been awarded $2.5 million from the Kentucky Pediatric Cancer Research Trust Fund to hire three new researchers who will help develop new therapeutics and conduct clinical trials for the UofL School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics and Norton Children’s Cancer Institute.
“This funding is another key resource in UofL and Norton Children’s ongoing work to build a cutting-edge pediatric cancer research program,” said Michael Ferguson, chief of the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation in the UofL School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics and chief of Norton Children’s Cancer Institute. “This will allow us to develop new pediatric cancer treatments and bring them to families in Kentucky and surrounding states before they are available anywhere else – ensuring children here have first access to the latest approved therapies.”
Previous grants funded some of the biggest findings within the UofL Department of Pediatrics and Norton Children’s Cancer Institute. One notable example is CAR T-cell immunotherapy research conducted by the late William Tse. The research involves reprogramming the immune cells of brain cancer patients to kill their own brain cancer cells that have resisted conventional therapy…