Duke accepts grant for PBTF research institute

The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) presented an additional $6 million to its research institute at Duke University yesterday.

PBTF co-founders Mike and Dianne Traynor presented the new grant at a reception held Wednesday at Duke's Levine Science Research Center. The award furthers the work started by an initial $6 million grant that formed the PBTF Institute at Duke in 2003.

The event was attended by Duke's Chancellor for Health Affairs, Dr. Victor J. Dzau, the Dean of the School of Medicine, Dr. Nancy Andrews, and more than 150 Duke researchers and clinicians.

"The grant to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation Institute at Duke from the foundation is very emblematic of their role in moving childhood brain tumor research forward in the United States and worldwide," said Darell Bigner, M.D., Ph.D., director of the PBTF Institute at Duke. "On behalf of Duke and on behalf of all of our childhood brain tumor patients, I want to thank the foundation for the support and the opportunity to help these children."

PBTF-funded research at Duke focuses on projects aimed at developing gene-based therapies, vaccines and other novel treatments for common childhood brain tumors, including medulloblastomas and astrocytomas. 

Researchers at Duke share their results with their counterparts at the three other PBTF Institutes, housed at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, and the University of California, San Francisco. Current funding of the entire PBTF Institute program stands at $13 million.

While several PBTF fundraising efforts support this work, most donations come from the Ride for Kids® program, with long-standing sponsorship from the American Honda Motor Company.

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