ORLANDO, Fla. – Nemours Children’s Health is announcing the largest ever donation to a single research project at the hospital in Lake Nona.
Officials said $7 million has been donated from the Pass It On To Kids Foundation. The money will be used to advance groundbreaking research that harnesses the Zika virus to target and eradicate neuroblastoma and ovarian cancers.
Through the donation, researchers at Nemours will design and implement a first-in-human trial of Zika virus for women with advanced ovarian caner who do not respond to other types of treatment.
“Zika virus essentially enters the tumor and kills the cells and we followed them over time to ensure there was no recurrence,” Dr. Tamarah Westmoreland, associate professor of surgery, said.
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Westmoreland published a study in January in Caner Research Communication showing that injecting neuroblastoma tumors with Zika virus shrank or eliminated those tumors in studies with mice, suggesting that the virus could someday serve as an effective cancer therapy.
“What we are hoping to see is to translate the mouse work that we’re doing now into a phase one clinical trial,” Westmoreland said.
The foundation has also allocated $1 million of the $7 million donation for the music therapy program at Nemours Children’s Hospital to help meet growing demand.
The hospital said music therapy is used within a therapeutic relationship to support children’s mental and physical well-being.
It gives children and their families a safe, nonverbal way to communicate emotions, concerns, and anxieties.
For further details about Nemours pediatric research, click here.
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