The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to
raising money for childhood cancer research, has awarded a grant of
$250,000 to the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The grant will fund research personnel for the Children’s Oncology
Group pediatric cancer clinical trials at UIC, Rush and Stroger medical
centers.

The three medical centers will provide nearly 40 different cancer
clinical trials to patients from infancy through age 50 who are being
treated for leukemia, lymphoma, and tumors of the brain, retina, bones,
and other major organs.

“This grant is supporting the unprecedented merger of the pediatric
cancer research efforts at UIC, Rush and Stroger medical centers so
that patients with a wide variety of cancers have the opportunity to
receive the most sophisticated treatment regimens for their benefit and
for the benefit of patients in the future,” said Dr. Mary Lou Schmidt,
head of pediatric hematology/oncology at UIC.

The University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago provides
comprehensive services to children and adolescents with cancer,
leukemia, sickle cell disease, hemophilia, and other blood disorders.

The hospital is part of the Children’s Oncology Group, an international
clinical trial cooperative which studies and shares the best treatment
protocols for children, adolescents and young adults afflicted with
cancer.

The St. Baldrick’s Foundation began as a challenge between friends and
has grown into the world’s largest volunteer-driven fundraising program
for childhood cancer research.

The foundation coordinates worldwide head-shaving events, with
volunteer “shavees” raising money to support childhood cancer research.
Since 2000, head-shavings have taken place in 18 countries and 48 U.S.
states, raising more than $51 million, and shaving more than 73,000
heads.

On Feb. 27, UIC will host an annual head-shaving event at the medical
center. Staff, physicians, and families of children with cancer
volunteer each year to have their heads shaved to raise money for St.
Baldrick’s.

To sign up to be a “shavee,” volunteer or to donate, visit
www.stbaldricks.org.

St. Baldrick’s awards grants to institutions that meet stringent
criteria and share the foundation’s commitment to fiscal responsibility
and research. St. Baldrick’s raised more than $17 million in 2008.

“Our volunteers and donors give hope to children and families touched
by this dreadful disease,” says Kathleen Ruddy, executive director for
the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. “Their passion and dedication to the
cause turn that hope into reality and have helped make grants like
these possible.”

UIC ranks among the nation’s top 50 universities in federal research
funding and is Chicago’s largest university with 25,000 students,
12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state’s major public
medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities
Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with
community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of
programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around
the world.

For more information about University of Illinois Medical Center at
Chicago, visit www.MyMedCenter.org