Thanks in part to the generosity of KIDSS for Kids (Kindness Is Doing Something Special For Kids), we have established a special endowed fund at Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital. The Emily Dorfman Smiles and Hope Fund is created to provide financial support so that the social workers and other “Child Life” specialists at the Hospital can appropriately acknowledge the milestone when a child with a brain tumor or other pediatric cancer has completed a course of treatment. The fund is also used to support special celebrations for in-patients undergoing treatment for cancer at the Hospital.

We are very proud of the grants we have made and the programs we are currently funding. We would like to take this opportunity to let everyone know where the Foundation’s money goes, and what we are doing to help others. Below we have described just a few of the many projects funded by the Foundation. To find out more about the many programs that we support, please write to us requesting more information. 

The Brain Tumor Learning Center-
An Emily Dorfman Foundation ProgramEmily Dorfman Foundation
We have committed $125,000 over five years to create and develop a model Learning Center at The Brain Tumor Center at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC. Duke is truly a national center for research, and for the treatment of adult and pediatric brain tumors. This innovative Learning Center program benefits children with brain tumors, siblings, and children of adults with brain tumors. The Learning Center is a warm, friendly environment for exploration, with a focus on emotional support as well as learning.

“Basic” Brain Tumor Research Grants – Across the USA
The Foundation has made several two-year grants for cutting edge laboratory research relating to pediatric brain tumors. Some of the research has helped to advance significantly the state of scientific knowledge; all the grants have helped encourage and aid the work of dedicated scientists. Some of these two-year grants are listed below.

In 1996, a $50,000 post-doctoral fellowship to James M. Olson, M.D., Ph.D., a pediatric oncologist at the University of Washington Children’s Hospital and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

In 1997, a $50,000 post-doctoral fellowship to Howard S. Weiner, M.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatric Neurosurgery at New York University Medical Center in New York City.

In 1998, a $25,000 post-doctoral fellowship to Martha L. Simmons, M.D., Ph.D., a neuropathology fellow at the University of California in San Francisco.

In 2000, a $60,000 post-doctoral fellowship to Julie M. Fleitz, M.D., a neuro-oncology research fellow at The Children’s Hospital of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.

In 2001, a $97,250 grant to Mark M. Souweidane, M.D., Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at The Weill Medical College of Cornell University and The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

“Translational” Brain Tumor Research

In 1999 the Foundation made a one year $50,000 “translational research” grant relating to pediatric brain tumors. The recipient was John Yong Ho Kim M.D., Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital In Boston. Dr. Kim is also an Instructor in Hemotology-Oncology at Harvard School of Medicine. Translational brain tumor research is pre-clinical research intended to evaluate the therapeutic potential of recent discoveries in the basic mechanisms of either brain tumor pathogenesis or experimental therapeutics. Dr. Kim’s research evaluated the use of Neurotrophin-3 for the treatment of a very common type of pediatric brain tumor called medulloblastoma.