Johns Hopkins pediatric oncologist Ido Paz-Priel  has received a $100,000 Hope Grant from the Hyundai Hope on Wheels Foundation to fund research that may lead to a novel therapeutic approach to managing multiple malignancies and inflammatory conditions. Paz-Priel accepted the award Sept. 2, the beginning of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The grant to fund “The C/EBP:NF-kB Complex: A novel target in pediatric leukemia and lymphoma,” is one of Hyundai’s 68 National Hope Grants announced that day.  

 WATCH Dr. Paz-Priel accept his check:
 

“Dysregulated apoptosis is an important feature of the malignant phenotype in hematologic malignancies, contributing to the high rate of therapy failure,” says Donald Small, director of pediatric oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. “Ido is proposing an exciting series of experiments.” 

Hyundai’s Hope on Wheels Pediatric Cancer Research Grant, Small continues, “will enable Ido to establish an independent research program that will provide a novel therapeutic approach for children with leukemia and lymphoma.”  

Since 1998, Hyundai Hope on Wheels has donated more than $14 million to children’s hospitals nationwide to help kids fight cancer. Every time a new Hyundai vehicle is sold in the United States $200 is donated to Hope on Wheels. In 2009, Hyundai and its dealers presented Paz-Priel’s colleague, pediatric oncologist Heather J. Symons, with a check for $35,000 to help fund her research into allogeneic stem cell transplantation.  

In a special recognition at Johns Hopkins that afternoon, Sept. 2,  Paz-Priel accepted a ceremonial check from Hyundai representatives.