USC President Michael Amiridis and First Lady Ero Aggelopoulou-Amiridis welcomed College of Pharmacy researchers, Prisma Health partners, families touched by childhood cancer and community supporters in celebration of a partnership with Curing Kids Cancer.

Founded by Grainne Owen and her husband, Clay, Curing Kids Cancer funds research and care for children diagnosed with pediatric cancer. The endowment to the college, called Killian's Hope for South Carolina, honors their son, who died of leukemia at age 9.

President Amiridis welcomed the Owens back to the place where the idea first took shape. The couple met Michael Wyatt, chair of the Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences at the College of Pharmacy, while attending a faculty dinner at the President's House, and a conversation about shared goals grew into a partnership.

"This partnership is a great example of the power of our university community to build relationships that change lives," Amiridis says.

The $2.5 million gift from Curing Kids Cancer to the College of Pharmacy supports a clinical translational research program between USC and Prisma Health. Wyatt says pediatric cancer has not fully benefited from advances in precision medicine, in part because the disease is so rare. Prisma Health pediatric oncologist Stuart Cramer, M.D., medical director of the Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, and his team care for patients in Columbia, while College of Pharmacy researchers work with partners across campus to study the tumors.

Early results are promising. Protocols are in place, and tissue samples have already been sent to Max Chen’s lab in the college to begin analysis.

"We are proving that we can find a needle in a stack of needles," Wyatt says.

Dean Stephen J. Cutler says the work builds on the strength of colleges of pharmacy and depends on clinicians and scientists working together.

"Most of the initial groundwork is done in the field of medicinal chemistry and pharmacology, which are typically housed in colleges of pharmacy," Cutler says.

Wyatt says the partnership is built for the long term.

"Dr. Kramer and I are committed to building a foundation that will long outlast us," he says.

Owen credits the university's talent and resources for what comes next.

"We are going to be a center of excellence. There is no doubt in my mind about that," she says. “You have the talent, you have the resources here at the university to make a true difference, to save children’s lives.”