Thank you to Jolie Green, FHU student and a chi beta community service representative, for thinking of Eli's Block Party for her club's service activities. Please, consider supporting the club's efforts with a donation via the button.

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Eli's Block Party raises money for pediatric brain cancer research. This year, the funds we raise go to Dr. Greg Friedman at Children's of Alabama. The cure is in research, so our mission is, first, to raise money for research. We put money directly in the hand that holds the microscope so that we get a bigger bang for our charity buck.

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Dr. Friedman's overarching goal is to improve outcomes for children with malignant brain tumors by developing and improving novel, targeted therapies in the lab and then translating these therapies to clinical trials.

 

Currently, Dr. Friedman is the principal investigator for the first-ever pediatric trial of HSV G207 in children with recurrent or progressive brain cancers (Clinical Trial: HSV G207). For this trial, the Herpes virus (HSV), which typically causes cold sores, has been engineered to be safe for normal cells but can infect and kill cancer cells and stimulate the patient’s own immune system to attack the tumor providing a one-two punch at killing tumor cells. To maximize the benefit of this therapy, his lab focuses on determining mechanisms of therapeutic resistance by exploring the role of tumor genotype, phenotype, and microenvironment; and cellular defense mechanisms so that newer viruses, novel combinations, and unique routes of virus delivery may be developed to circumvent resistance mechanisms. Please, take a minute to listen to this short interview about Dr. Friedman's work.

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