Targeting brain tumors in kids could help find better, less toxic drugs

In order to help kids with cancerous brain tumors, Jezabel Rodriguez Blanco has to cobble together grants from different foundations to fund her work.

Sometimes, it means looking up who the foundation was named after. Rodriguez Blanc, an assistant professor at Hollings Cancer Center at Medical University of South Carolina, has received grants from cancer foundations named for two legendary sports figures. One is from the V Foundation, founded by the late North Carolina State basketball coach and ESPN personality Jim Valvano. More recently, she got a $100,000 grant from the Vince Lombardi Cancer Foundation and the Starr Children’s Fund, named for respectively the former Green Bay Packers coach and his star quarterback, Bart Starr.