On August 15, 2015, NJ charity Thea’s Star of Hope gave a $10,000 donation to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Eight members from the organization traveled down to Philadelphia to make the presentation, as well as tour the lab and facility that they are helping to fund.
Dr. Adam Resnick and Dr. Jay Storm, along with Dr. Angela Waanders, led the presentation about the Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC.) The CBTTC is a collaborative multi-institute research program that provides open access to biospecimens and data on genomic analysis on all types of pediatric brain tumors. By analyzing the mutations in these tumors, therapies can be targeted to those specific mutations. This “precision medicine” is what many cancer researchers are working toward. Sharing the materials data and results among many institutions helps to accelerate the research.
Alongside CHOP, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Lurie Children’s Hospital, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Meyer Children’s Hospital in Florence, Italy and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals are part of the consortium.
This funding from Thea’s Star of Hope will go directly to support the CBTTC program and research at CHOP. Thea, the daughter of Trisha and Jeff Danze of Robbinsville, was diagnosed with a brain tumor when she was just 4 months old.
Trisha Danze founded Thea’s Star of Hope in 2011 with the mission to improve the treatment experience for kids with brain tumors. The organization accomplishes this by supporting research for improved therapies with fewer side effects. Thea’s Star of Hope is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit and a Guidestar Silver-rated volunteer organization that directs more than eighty percent of funds toward pediatric brain tumor programs and research.
For more information visit theasstarofhope.org.
