August 6, 2009
Tina Albertson named 2009 St. Baldrick’s Scholar
Tina Albertson, UW acting instructor of pediatrics, has been named a 2009 St. Baldrick’s Scholar. As one of 10 scholars, Albertson was awarded $330,000 from the St. Baldrick’s Foundation to pursue her research on pediatric cancer.
Albertson, who also sees pediatric patients at Seattle Children’s, studies inherited genetic factors that put children at risk for developing cancer. Her research project, entitled “DNA Replication Errors and Pediatric Cancer,” will be overseen by Brad Preston, professor of pathology.
Albertson said the St. Baldrick’s Foundation grant would allow her to continue to study how mutations made during DNA replication accelerate tumor development in mice, and determine if error prone DNA replication plays a part in pediatric cancer development. She will also study the inherited basis of two common pediatric tumors — rhabdomyosarcoma and lymphoblastic lymphoma — in mice.
“My mission is to understand the causes of childhood cancer in order to prevent the development of pediatric cancer in future generations,” Albertson said. “By preventing cancer we can achieve the ultimate cure.”
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization, is dedicated to raising money to find new cures for childhood cancer and to find treatments to improve the quality of life for patients and survivors. The foundation funds research projects conducted by established and younger pediatric cancer specialists.
The St. Baldrick’s Scholar’s program was created to further the research of promising young pediatric oncologists. The awards bridge the funding gap between their fellowships and sources of funding available to more established research.
Albertson was one of 10 doctors to be funded as a St. Baldrick’s Scholar for 2009.
