The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation gave the University a $6-million grant May 14 to continue its search for new treatments for the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among children and adolescents.
The Asheville-based foundation also gave Duke a $6-million gift in 2003 to establish an institute and develop gene-based therapies, vaccines and other treatments.
"We are very pleased to receive the renewal and very humbled by it," said Dr. Darell Bigner, director of Duke's Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation Institute. "We have a large group of Duke scientists that will be working very hard to achieve the goals of the grant."
The institute will use its latest gift from the foundation to put its laboratory discoveries to the test in clinical trials, Bigner said.
"The current treatments are damaging to the nervous systems of children, so we're working to develop treatments that will be effective but won't harm the brain or spinal cord," Bigner said.
The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation was founded in 1991 by Mike and Dianne Traynor, who were troubled by the struggles of a colleague's stricken child. Among the organization's fundraisers is a motorcycle ride that has raised $34 million for brain tumor research.
In addition to the Duke institute, the foundation also funds research at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and the University of California, San Francisco.
Drawing from the fields of biochemistry, genetics and biology, scientists at the Duke institute are on the cutting edge of pediatric brain cancer research, Dianne Traynor, co-founder and director of research funding and advocacy for the foundation, said at the grant's presentation.
"[The foundation is] in contact with most of the research in childhood brain tumors that goes on throughout the world," Bigner said.
"They believe that we have the strongest program in the country, if not in the field, at Duke."
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