To raise funds for the pediatirc research center of Children's Memorial Hospital

Since its affiliation with Children's Memorial, the NSMRJB has raised more than $1.5 million to fund creative research in an amazing array of disciplines through a wide range of fundraising events and activities. NSMRJB support has led to advanced investigation in cancer, genetics and developmental biology at Children's Memorial Research Center, one of a handful of free-standing facilities in the nation devoted exclusively to pediatric research.

In 2008 the NSMRJB completed a two-year $150,000 pledge to support stem cell and autism research. In 2009, the NSMRJB has embarked on a new two-year $150,000 pledge. This pledge will be divided between two different research areas.

2009-10 Fundraising Targets
The following research areas were chosen by the NSMRJB because of the wide reaching possibilities of stem cell therapy and the rising number of children being diagnosed with autism.

Cardiomyopathy: Sunjay Kaushal, MD, PhD, focuses his research on preventing cardiomyopathy which causes the heart muscle to weaken resulting in decreased function. He is working on using heart stem cells to prevent cardiomyopathy in children and also to engineer heart muscle tissue. A portion of the funding will be used to purchase a Doppler imaging probe necessary for studying how the heart stem cells function when they are injected into the heart.

Autism research: Laura Herzing, PhD, is working on the role that the gene UBE3A plays in autism, specifically autistic regression. Her aim is to understand the role of this gene more fully, so that better and more focused therapies can be developed to halt or reverse regression.

Courtney Fahn
847.732.9612
courtneyfahn@hotmail.com