The foundation Amics Joan Petit Children with Cancer, which has been collaborating with Vall d'Hebron Research for years, has donated this year 65.000€ that will go to the Group of Translational Research in Child and Adolescent Cancer.

For Dr. Roberta Antonelli and Dr. Ariadna Boloix, both postdoctoral researchers of the Translational Research in Child and Adolescent Cancer group, this money means being able to continue advancing in their projects. Dr. Antonelli is developing lines of research on ependymoma in the microenvironment and Dr. Boloix is studying RNA-based therapies. 

"The microenvironment is essential in tumor development. In our research we have been able to determine which interactions between the tumor and the microenvironment are important for tumor development. Now we must find and develop therapies to prevent them.", explains Roberta Antonelli, PhD.

"We develop vaccines like those of COVID, but for cancer. We put small doses of RNA as a drug so that they reach the tumor by means of a vehicle and patients have fewer side effects.", explains Dr. Ariadna Boloix, PhD.

About the initiatives and the Joan Petit Foundation

As every year, Amics Joan Petit Children with Cancer has carried out activities to raise funds for childhood cancer research. The most popular is the traditional solidarity lunch. 

For more than 20 years Amics Joan Petit has been working to give visibility and achieve a better awareness in our society regarding childhood cancer, not sufficiently considered in relation to others, according to the Foundation. Amics Joan Petit is present in all Catalan hospitals where pediatric oncology and hematology treatments are carried out.

"For us it is very important to promote research to achieve new therapies. The result is the constant improvement of more effective and less aggressive treatments, in short, the improvement of the quality of life and health of children.", the Foundation explains.

Initiatives like this show that society is and will always be on the side of research.