The University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy and Prisma Health Children’s Hospital announced a research collaboration on Sept. 24 aimed at redefining pediatric oncology care in South Carolina.
The University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy and Prisma Health Children’s Hospital announced a research collaboration on Sept. 24 aimed at redefining pediatric oncology care in South Carolina.
The $5 million pledge from Curing Kids Cancer established the Killian’s Hope for a United South Carolina endowment, which will fund research aimed at developing and providing access to innovative therapeutics for children with cancer.
Background: An estimated 11,000 children 14 and younger and 5,800 adolescents age 15 to 19 are diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. each year. In 2024, USC health science researchers played a critical role in developing the state’s first-ever comprehensive look at the burden of childhood cancer in the Palmetto State.
World-class collaboration: Working closely with Prisma Health’s Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, the College of Pharmacy’s Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences will focus on developing an essential scientific understanding of how tumors function and where they’re most vulnerable.
What he’s saying: “Our mission is to harness today's most sophisticated laboratory techniques to analyze, characterize and study childhood cancers to learn how to defeat them,” says Michael Wyatt, professor and chair in the College of Pharmacy. “This research reveals the insights needed to overcome these challenging diseases."
Gamecock connection: Curing Kids Cancer was started by USC alumnus Clay Owen and his wife, Grainne, in 2005 after the loss of their son Killian to leukemia. Clay earned his degree in broadcast journalism from USC and went on to work as a senior producer for CNN. His father, uncles, brother and sisters all are Gamecock grads. Clay and Grainne’s three surviving sons are all Carolina alumni. Over the past 20 years, they’ve raised more than $30 million for pediatric cancer research.
