Congratulations to Pete Hendrickson, MD, PhD, who has been awarded a three-year 2025 Young Investigator grant in the amount of $180,000 from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer, effective July 2025. Dr. Hendrickson's grant is titled "Hyperactivating oncogenic ETS factors to selectively target CIC-rearranged sarcomas."
"My goal is to develop a cancer-dependency map for CIC::DUX4 sarcoma and to acquire the tools, resources and technical skills to validate hits and begin translating them into targeted therapies," said Dr. Hendrickson. "In the short term, this work will lead to new insights into the mechanisms of CIC::DUX4 sarcoma initiation and maintenance and nominate potential new avenues for therapeutic intervention. In the intermediate-term, I hope to identify small molecules, peptides or other novel compounds that selectively target the COP1/ETS1 axis and initiate pre-clinical studies in mice to evaluate their safety and efficacy. Looking long-term, my goal is to expand operations to other rare, overlooked pediatric sarcomas that can be leveraged to identify and translate genetic vulnerabilities into targeted therapies."