UMass Chan professor receives second $300K for childhood cancer research

Photo | UMass Chan Medical School Professors Jason Shohet and Joae Quing Wu received a $300,000 to research childhood cancer treatments.

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By Katherine Hamilton

Jason Shohet, a professor at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, has received a second grant for cancer research totaling $300,000, two years after the first grant, according to a Monday announcement on the school’s website.

Both grants were awarded by Hyundai Hope on Wheels, a California-based nonprofit providing funding for pediatric cancer research.

Shohet received the $300,000, two-year Scholar Hope Grant for his work overcoming drug resistance to treatments for neuroblastoma, a form of childhood cancer which affects the peripheral nervous system and accounts for 15% of pediatric cancer deaths, according to UMass Chan’s story.

Shohet’s research will look at the role of an enzyme protein in inhibiting tumor growth and increasing the efficacy of chemotherapy.

Shohet is an associate professor of pediatrics and the chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology in the Department of Pediatrics. In his newly funded research, he will collaborate with Joae Quing Wu, who is also a professor of pediatrics.

Shohet’s first grant from Hyundai Hope on Wheels was for $300,000 and was awarded in 2019. The nonprofit presented more than $13 million for pediatric cancer research in the U.S. in 2021.