Todd Bradley, PhD
Vice Chair, Institutional Biosafety Committee; Director, Immunogenomics Program; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Full BiographyVivekanand Yadav, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Research Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Full BiographyTwo Children’s Mercy researchers received Braden’s Hope for Childhood Cancer grants, totaling $399,664. The recipients were honored as part of the 2025 Super Six Grant Awardees at Braden’s Hope for Childhood Cancer.
Both research studies focus on learning more about the cutting-edge chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy and how this treatment could be more effective in treating certain types of pediatric cancer. CAR-T cell therapy is a cancer treatment where a patient’s cells are genetically modified in a lab to recognize and destroy cancer cells and then transfused back into the patient.
Dr. Todd Bradley
Braden’s Hope 2025 Super Six Grant Awardee, Todd Bradley, PhD, Genomic Medicine Center, received a two-year, $99,820 grant that covers a project period of Aug. 15, 2025, through Aug. 15, 2027.
While current immunotherapies have changed the course of cancer treatment, they still struggle against tumor resistance and preventing potential relapses. These therapies target single tumor antigens. Dr. Bradley’s pilot study aims to use his team’s recently developed immunotherapies that can target multiple tumor antigens and determine whether these therapies are more effective in fighting against tumor resistance and relapse. This study builds on his recent work on developing conventional CAR-T cells that can target two different tumor antigens, CD20 and CD74.
Immunotherapies commonly target B-cell tumor antigens such as CD20, CD74 or CD19, but do not target them simultaneously. Dr. Bradley’s preliminary research found that tumors missing CD20 still contained CD74. CAR-T cells target CD20 and CD74 at the same time and kill B-cell tumors, including those with low antigen expression. The goal of this study is to determine whether CAR-T cells are more efficient against B-cell tumors missing CD19 or CD20.
Dr. Bradley believes this study may help improve CAR-T cell therapy for B-cell tumors and potentially find new ways to treat tumors that are resistant to current immunotherapies.
“Support from Braden’s Hope makes it possible to explore new CAR‑T strategies that could meaningfully change how we treat pediatric cancer,” said Dr. Bradley. “Our goal is to create treatments that are more resilient to tumor resistance and better suited for children with aggressive or relapsed B‑cell cancers who have limited therapeutic options.”
Dr. Vivekanand Yadav
Braden’s Hope 2025 Super Six Grant Awardee, Vivekanand Yadav, PhD, Hematology/Oncology/BMT, received a three-year, $299,844 grant that covers a project period of Aug. 15, 2025, through Aug. 14, 2028.
Diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPGs) are aggressive brain tumors that lead to the death of hundreds of children annually, with most pediatric patients dying within a year of their diagnosis. DIPGs have immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments (TME), causing CAR-T cell therapy to be less effective. TMEs of DIPG tumors release molecules such as CD73, which produce adenosine, an immunosuppressant that inactivates CAR-T cells. Dr. Yadav’s study seeks to better understand CD73 to determine how it inactivates CAR-T cells and whether blocking CD73 would make CAR-T cell therapy more effective against aggressive tumors like DIPGs.
Preclinical testing has previously failed to predict how TME affects CAR-T cell function due to the lack of an immunocompetent DIPG model. However, Dr. Yadav’s team will use novel preclinical models of DIPG to accurately assess how CD73 affects CAR-T cells’ tumor-killing potential in DIPG tumors. Dr. Yadav hypothesizes that blocking CD73 in DIPG tumors will reduce adenosine and, therefore, enhance the efficiency of CAR-T cells.
“This study aims to significantly advance our understanding and treatment of DIPG by addressing the challenges posed by the immunosuppressive TME, with a focus on CD73. The outcomes of this research have the potential to transform CAR-T cell therapy for pediatric brain tumors, providing new hope for affected children and their families,” said Dr. Yadav.
Kalyani Pyaram, PhD, University of Kansas Medical Center, serves as a co-investigator.