Innovative Research Leading to Drug Discovery
January 11, 2019

Innovative Research Leading to Drug Discovery

Cancer biologist Xiao-Nan Li, MD, Ph.D., Director of Pediatric Xenograft Modeling at the Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute at Lurie Children's, has pioneered the development of clinically relevant mouse models of pediatric cancers for drug screening. Specifically, these models are made by taking tumor tissues from patients and implanting them into the anatomic locations in mice reflective of the child's tumor, where they are tested with specific drugs to determine the best course of therapy. Because the mouse model tumors behave like human tumors, this method produces the most accurate recreation of how tumors in children will respond to specific therapies. With 130 models of different brain tumor subtypes, Dr. Li is recognized as having developed the largest number of tumor models in the world. He is expanding this successful approach to create models for all types of cancers, not only at diagnosis but also at recurrence and at the time of death to better understand tumor invasion and test new drug combinations that can significantly prolong survival times. Our goal is to move to personalized clinical drug screening models that would directly benefit each patient. Cal's Angels' support serves as the catalyst to push this important work forward.  

November 4, 2016

Cal's Angels funds Lurie Children's groundbreaking children's cancer research

Cal’s Angels partners with Lurie Children’s Hospital and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine to create new treatments for children’s cancers and save more children’s lives.

READ MORE
December 15, 2016

Lurie's Update: December 2016

I would like to express my appreciation for the support and thoughtfulness Cal’s All-Star Angel Foundation has demonstrated in order to provide brighter futures for children and their families. Your investment is enabling us to obtain the necessary personnel and resources to pursue breakthrough research that will produce increasingly more individualized and effective treatments for our patients.

READ MORE
June 1, 2017

Lurie's Update: June 2017

Your support will accelerate our efforts in pediatric drug discovery, making it possible to bring new therapies from the laboratory to human clinical trials in a more efficient and cost-effective way.

READ MORE

Subscribe to our newsletter