Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders Research

Invent@SC Scholar Ian Blumenthal, PhD, is researching novel pediatric brain cancer treatments in the Ben Towne labs of Jason Price, PhD, and Jim Olson, MD, PhD. He was selected as a 2025 Damon Runyon–St. Jude Pediatric Cancer Research Fellow, a prestigious, four-year fellowship — only six nationwide — and $300,000 in funding to support his research.

The Washington Research Foundation awarded a $250,000 phase 2 technology commercialization grant to Drs. Sinduja Marx and Jason Price, postdoctoral fellows in Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research’s Jim Olson Lab, in collaboration with Benaroya Research Institute. The grant supports the development of a novel gene therapy for the treatment of severe asthma and eosinophilic esophagitis.

The ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation (with support from Cal’s Angels and the Violet Foundation for Pediatric Brain Cancer) awarded grant funding to Dr. Andrea Timpanaro, a postdoctoral fellow in the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research’s Vitanza Lab, for his pediatric brain cancer research.