Media contact: Savannah Koplon
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants, has awarded third-year University of Alabama at Birmingham Pediatric Hematology and Oncology fellow Aman Wadhwa, M.D., a $195,000 grant.
Wadhwa plans to use this grant to examine the association of body composition of children with cancer at the time of diagnosis with chemotherapy-related side effects and survival.
“We are incredibly thankful to St. Baldrick’s Foundation for believing in our work and supporting our research,” Wadhwa said. “This grant will assist us greatly in completing our studies within the next two years.”
The grant will help Wadhwa examine factors that increase the risk of treatment-related side effects in children battling cancer. His focus is the treatment of children with hematologic malignancies.
St. Baldrick’s priority is to provide the funding necessary to train early career scientists pursuing careers in the pediatric cancer field. This grant provides two to three years of research funding and provides researchers with time in the lab under the mentorship of experts in their field. This year, the foundation awarded more than $2.7 million in grants to fund the next generation of pediatric oncologists.
Since its establishment, St. Baldrick’s has funded 134 of its fellows and granted more than $262 million toward the development of cancer treatments that could have a phenomenal impact on cancer research patients.
In addition to working toward a cure for childhood cancer, St. Baldrick’s also works to prevent the lifelong damage that can be caused by different forms of treatments while children are young and still developing. The foundation also funds research for better supportive care for patients during treatment.
Upon completion of his fellowship in June, Wadhwa will continue serving in the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, as well as the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship at UAB as an instructor.
For a complete list of institutions receiving this year’s grant, visit stbaldricks.org.