These 12 Innovation Awards help experienced researchers pursue bold ideas that could change the future for kids with cancer
WYNNEWOOD, PA, UNITED STATES, October 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) is proud to announce the funding of 12 new Innovation Grants in 2026. These two-year long projects will explore big questions in childhood cancer, challenge conventional thinking, and pursue discoveries that could lead to the next big breakthroughs for children with cancer. ALSF has funded nearly 290 Innovation grants since 2006.
Across these projects, researchers are exploring new ways to understand childhood cancer, overcome treatment resistance, detect disease earlier, and uncover vulnerabilities that could lead to new therapies. With ALSF’s support, researchers can investigate new approaches and see what new possibilities they might open for children with cancer.
“ALSF is allowing us to take a high-risk idea to develop a new platform technology and actually test that in the lab directly for pediatric cancer,” said Dr. Robbie Majzner, who received the World Gold Council Innovation Grant this year. His project will focus on exploring new strategies for treating neuroblastoma, the most common extracranial solid tumor in children.
Other grantees are also building upon previous awards from the Foundation to continue advancing new treatments for kids with cancer. Dr. Nathan Singh received an ALSF pediatric oncology student training (POST) grant, as a student, that helped launch his research career studying CAR T immunotherapy.
“Support from the POST allowed me to spend two years in Steve Grupp’s lab at CHOP and taught me the ins and outs of developing new cell therapies. I learned how to design CARs and engineer T cells, and also got to see this new therapy in action,” said Dr. Singh, who worked in the Grupp Lab when the first pediatric patient, Emily Whitehead, was treated in a groundbreaking CAR T cell therapy trial.
CAR T-cell therapy has transformed treatment for some children with leukemia that has resisted other treatments. Yet a major challenge remains: for many patients, the cancer eventually returns because the engineered immune cells stop working effectively over time.
Dr. Singh’s Innovation Grant supports a bold new approach: redesigning the molecular components that tell CAR T cells how to respond. These specially engineered cells have the potential to be more durable and help stop leukemia relapse in children.
“Childhood cancer isn’t just one disease, and it requires innovative, out-of-the-box ideas to find cures for all kids,” said Liz Scott, Co-Executive Director of ALSF, and Founder Alex Scott’s mother. “By providing researchers with the support to pursue promising new ideas that build upon their experience, we’re ensuring breakthroughs aren’t being left behind for kids who desperately need them.”
The full list of Innovation awardees and their project titles are below:
1. Robbie Majzner, MD, Neuroblastoma, G-TACs: A novel platform for ALK inhibition in neuroblastoma
2. James Rutka, MD/PhD, Brain tumors, Medulloblastoma, Exploiting Metabolic Convergence in Pediatric Leptomeningeal Metastasis
3. Nathan Singh, PhD, Leukemia, Enhancing CAR function using chemistry-informed protein design
4. Brian Crompton, MD, General Pediatric Cancer, Developing minimally invasive diagnostic and relapse detection assays for pediatric cancers
5. Anna Nam, MD, Brain tumors, germ cell tumor, Elucidating Primary CNS Germ Cell Tumors via Single Cell and Spatial Multi-omics
6. Xi Huang, PhD, Medulloblastoma, Targeting oncoregulon-licensed neuron-tumor interaction in medulloblastoma
7. David Gutmann, MD/PhD, Brain tumors, Astrocytoma, Decoupling Pediatric Brain Tumor Neuronal Dependencies
8. Alejandro Sweet-Cordero, MD, Ewing sarcoma, Modulating the immune response and enhancing DNA damage in Ewing sarcoma by inhibiting ENPP1
9. Nicolas Llosa, MD, Rhabdomyosarcoma, Harnessing Tertiary Lymphoid Structures to Reprogram the Immune Microenvironment in Rhabdomyosarcoma
10. Vivian Weiss, MD/PhD, Thyroid cancer, Mechanisms and Targeted Therapies for Squamous Transformation in Pediatric Diffuse Sclerosing Variant of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma (DSV-PTC)
11. Tanja Gruber, MD/PhD, Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Neoantigen-specific T cells for CBFA2T3-GLIS2 driven pediatric acute megakaryoblastic leukemia
12. David Langenau, PhD, Rhabdomyosarcoma, Therapeutic targeting of polyploid giant cancer cells (PGCCs) and the cGAS/STING/Interferon pathway in rhabdomyosarcoma
Since its inception, ALSF has raised more than $300 million and funded over 1,500 medical research grants in North America and Europe. Childhood cancer research is consistently underfunded at the federal level in the U.S. as compared to adult cancers.
About Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of 4-year-old Alexandra “Alex” Scott, who was fighting cancer and wanted to raise money to find cures for all children with cancer. By the time Alex passed away at the age of 8, she had raised $1 million. Since then, the Foundation bearing her name has evolved into a worldwide fundraising movement and the largest independent childhood cancer charity in the U.S. ALSF is a leader in funding pediatric cancer research projects across the globe and providing programs to families affected by childhood cancer. For more information, visit AlexsLemonade.org.
Adam Paris
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation
+1 866-333-1213
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