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Research Progress Spotlight
Project: COMPRENDO

Dr. Paula Aristizabal, a research partner scientist at Rady Children’s Hospital, who also leads Curebound’s Cancer Equities committee as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board, recently received a RO1 grant from the NIH for nearly $5 million in follow-on funding to expand a pilot program that was funded through a Padres Pedal the Cause Discovery Grant in 2018.

The original early-phase Discovery Grant for this project invested $125,000, which allowed Dr. Aristizabal to launch a peer navigation program aimed at improving diverse pediatric participation in clinical trials, with a focus on reaching Hispanic families who have historically demonstrated an extremely low participation and poorer cancer survival rates than non-Hispanic Whites.

The program is called COMPRENDO (ChildhOod Malignancy Peer Research NavigatiOn), which has made a significant impact in the last five years, not only for the patients actually enrolled in these clinical trials, but also leading to more holistic impact down the road. With this RO1 funding from the NIH, Dr. Aristizabal will continue to expand her research in San Diego and will also add three new sites - Boston, San Franciso and Alabama.

If you’d like to read the full description of COMPRENDO, it’s available here.

This is a great example of how Curebound seed funding is helping advance research that’s not only having an impact in this community, but also across the country. What began as a small pilot grant here in San Diego has taken root and grown at a funding multiplier of 32:1 to expand to multiple regions. Even more important than the financial multiplier is the direct impact this study will have on the families that chose to enroll their children in clinical trials, which quite starkly could mean the difference between life and death. This is exactly what Padres Pedal the Cause and Curebound were created to do, and it is only through your tremendous support and generosity that we are able to make it happen.

Our heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Aristizabal and her team on this progress and recognition. As a community, we are very proud to support their tremendous work and continue to deepen our partnership with Rady Children’s Hospital as we work together toward a day when no family ever hears the words “your child has cancer”.

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Funded by the Padres Pedal the Cause community.