Neuroblastoma UK Awards £1.1 Million in 2024 Grant Round

Neuroblastoma UK is awarding £1.1 million in its 2024 grant round to fund new innovative research into neuroblastoma. New therapeutic approaches, pathways to improve existing treatments and exploration of an MRNA vaccine are some of the projects to be funded in the 2024 grant round; with an emphasis on translational research which can be rapidly transferred from the lab bench to bedside.

Thanks to our generous supporters, we will provide funding for 5 new research studies, as part of our 2024 grant round, with a total funding of £1.1million. The grant round was announced at our Neuroblastoma Symposium in Cambridge in March. We received an unprecedented number of ‘excellent’ proposals. The total funding ask was more than £3 million and we are pleased to announce that after months of input from independent expert reviewers and invaluable advice from our Scientific Advisory Board, that we are able to fund over a third. The decision to fund a grant involves a rigorous evaluation process. We are incredibly grateful to the experts from around the world who gave of their time to help advise our Scientific Advisory Board on the projects that are most likely to the Charity’s aims with the funds currently held. Thanks to all applicants for their submissions and interest in furthering research into neuroblastoma; over three quarters of the submissions received were felt to have been able to make an impact in the neuroblastoma field but were competing for limited funds.

We will introduce you to the researchers and their projects in more detail over the next few weeks but in the meantime thanks to your generous donations:

Prof Steve Archibald, King’s College, London will receive £268,301. This proposal aims to develop academic production of new molecular tracers to identify neuroblastoma in patients, to further clinical PET imaging trials in neuroblastoma and to develop efficient availability of the tracers required which is currently an area of great need.

Prof Louis Chesler from the Institute of Cancer Research and Prof John Anderson at University College, London have been awarded £254,120 for their studies to determine if the activity of CAR T cells can be increased either by external radiotherapy or by molecular therapy such as mIBG. The early evidence is the CAR T cells could be effective in high -risk neuroblastoma.

Prof Robert Falconer with associates Dr Steven Shnyder, Dr Ethan Perkins and Dr Goreti Ribeiro Morais from the University of Bradford have been awarded £188,039. This study will look at a new drug development of a less toxic new class of drug (ATR inhibitor) for the treatment of high risk neuroblastoma.ATR is a top priority therapeutic target for neuroblastoma.

Dr Olga Piskareva, lead applicant from RCSI University, Dublin, with co funders Prof Helen McCarthy (Queen’s Belfast), Dr Miguel Segura (Vall Hebron Research Institute, Barcelona), Dr Frank Westermann (German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg), Prof Juliet Gray (University of Southampton) and Dr Lucas Moreno (Vall Hebron Research Institute, Barcelona) will receive £208,887. Their research proposal builds on the mRNA vaccine approach. mRNA vaccines were successfully applied to COVID -19 and are now being tested in adult cancer. The hope is that mRNA neuroblastoma vaccine may reduce the rate of relapse of high risk neuroblastoma and could exhibit possible relevance to other areas of paediatric oncology.

Dr Andrew Stoker, Dr Steve Hart and Dr Pascale Guillot from University College, London have been awarded £183,207. Retinoic acid is currently a standard part of maintenance therapy for high-risk neuroblastoma. This research project will focus on increasing the activity of retinoic acid which could potentially have long-term clinical benefits and advances in toxin gene delivery.

Neuroblastoma UK would like to thank all our supporters and research applicants for supporting this grant round. Only by bringing the neuroblastoma community together and funding these types of excellent proposals can we move closer to our vision where every child diagnosed with neuroblastoma is ultimately cured.