FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
St. Baldrick’s Foundation:
Traci Johnson
Traci@stbaldricks.org
Allied World
Rachel Pankratz,
Senior Vice President,
Head of Global Branding & Corporate Communications
rachel.pankratz@awac.com
LOS ANGELES, CA (March 12, 2026) – Allied World Assurance Company Holdings, Ltd. (Allied World) today announced a $4.3 million, five-year commitment to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation to accelerate lifesaving childhood cancer research. This transformative investment will fund both critical studies aimed at improving the quality of life for children undergoing cancer treatment and the next generation of pediatric cancer researchers.
Through the newly named Allied World – St. Baldrick’s Survivorship and Supportive Care Research Grant Program, this commitment will reopen an important research funding category that has been paused since the COVID-19 pandemic. The program will support studies focused on improving the quality of life for children during treatment and for survivors facing long-term effects of therapy.
As part of this historic investment, Allied World will also fund the entire 2026 class of the Allied World – St. Baldrick’s Fellows, providing $1.3 million in support for eight early-career physician-scientists conducting innovative research to improve treatments and outcomes for children with cancer. Fellowship grants provide two to three years of funding, enabling recipients to conduct groundbreaking research while receiving advanced mentorship from leaders in the field.
“Since our early years, Allied World has been an industry leader to Conquer Kids’ Cancer,” said St. Baldrick’s Foundation CEO, Kathleen Ruddy, “and today, Allied World steps forward as a global leader in the fight to cure every child. By ensuring the best and brightest young physicians will be trained as researchers, and that every child enjoys a better quality of life, Allied World is filling gaps in the national childhood cancer pipeline, while serving as a model for Corporate America. We are indebted to this visionary company.”
The 2026 Allied World – St. Baldrick’s Fellows are:
Amy Li MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Relapsed or treatment-resistant pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is very difficult to cure. Dr. Li is studying whether combining two types of drugs, thalidomide analogs and menin inhibitors, could help the immune system better recognize and attack leukemia cells in certain genetic forms of AML. Her research will examine how this drug combination affects immune cells and aims to make new treatments more effective and safer for children.
Rahela Aziz-Bose MD, MPH, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Extended Fellow)
Many childhood cancer survivors face long-term health problems, including heart disease, and about 1 in 4 also struggle with not having consistent access to healthy food. Dr. Aziz-Bose is testing a program called CHEF, which provides meal kits, grocery gift cards, and support applying for nutrition assistance programs to help families access healthier food. The study will evaluate whether this program improves eating habits and food security in young survivors during their first year after treatment, with the goal of reducing future heart disease risk.
Laura Kagami MD, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Dr. Kagami is developing a new blood-based test called LBSeq4Kids to help detect and monitor cancer in children without needing invasive surgical biopsies. This “liquid biopsy” looks for tumor DNA in body fluids like blood or spinal fluid, allowing doctors to track how a child’s cancer responds to treatment in real time. The goal is to better personalize care, choose more effective treatments, and improve outcomes for children with cancer.
Alberto Guerra MD, PhD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Many childhood cancer treatments can harm healthy cells because they cannot always distinguish between cancer and normal cells, leading to serious long-term side effects. Dr. Guerra is developing a type of immunotherapy that uses a patient’s own white blood cells, engineered to recognize and attack a marker found on cancer cells but not on healthy cells. This approach could help the immune system target cancer more precisely and stay active longer, potentially improving survival while reducing harmful side effects.
Dr. Monica Pomaville MD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Diffuse midline glioma is an aggressive childhood brain tumor with no known cure. Dr. Pomaville is researching ways to make immunotherapy, such as CAR T therapy, more effective by modifying RNA signals that influence how tumors appear to the immune system. Her work will test whether a drug that alters these signals can help the immune system better recognize and attack the cancer, potentially improving treatment outcomes.
Timothy Spear, MD, PhD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Extended Fellow)
High-risk neuroblastoma is an aggressive childhood cancer, and current treatments can leave survivors with serious lifelong side effects. Researchers are developing personalized cancer vaccines that train a patient’s immune system to recognize and attack mutations unique to their tumor, called neoantigens. This study will test a new tool to identify these mutations and evaluate how well the personalized vaccine works, with the goal of eventually launching clinical trials for children with high-risk neuroblastoma and other pediatric cancers.
Helen Tian MD, University of California, San Francisco
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive childhood blood cancer, and current treatments have changed little in the past 20 years. Dr. Tian is studying a particularly high-risk form of AML caused by a NUP98 gene rearrangement to better understand the proteins that help these leukemia cells grow. Her team is also working to develop a drug that blocks one of these key proteins, which could lead to new, more effective treatments for children with this hard-to-treat leukemia.
Lauren Meyer MD, PhD, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Some children with cancer develop a severe and potentially life-threatening inflammatory condition called hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), but it is not yet clear why certain patients are affected or which treatments work best. Dr. Meyer is using advanced technologies to analyze blood samples from children with cancer who develop HLH and is creating the first mouse model of the disease to better understand its underlying biology. Her goal is to help doctors identify HLH earlier and choose the most effective treatments, improving survival for children with this condition and related immune disorders.
About St. Baldrick’s Foundation
Every 2 minutes, a child somewhere in the world is diagnosed with cancer. In the U.S., 1 in 5 will not survive. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest charity funder of childhood cancer research grants, has awarded more than $371 million to researchers to Conquer Kids’ Cancer. When you give to St. Baldrick’s, you don’t just give to one hospital – you support every institution with the expertise to treat kids with cancer across the U.S. St. Baldrick’s ensures that children fighting cancer now — and those diagnosed in the future — will have access to the most cutting-edge treatment, by supporting every stage of research, from new ideas in the lab to the training of the next generation of researchers, to lifesaving clinical trials. St. Baldrick’s has played a role in virtually every advancement in the field over the past 25 years and remains essential in advancing progress and fostering innovation in childhood cancer research. Visit StBaldricks.org and help #ConquerKidsCancer.
About Allied World
Allied World Assurance Company Holdings, Ltd, through its subsidiaries, is a global provider of insurance and reinsurance solutions. We operate under the brand Allied World and have supported clients, cedents and trading partners with thoughtful service and meaningful coverages since 2001. We are a subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, and we benefit from a worldwide network of affiliated entities that allow us to think and respond in non-traditional ways. Our capital base is strong, our solutions anticipate rather than react to changing trends, and our teams are focused on establishing long-term relationships that are mutually beneficial.