MacQuarrie to Study Pediatric Sarcomas with Giddan Support
Pediatric cancer research is met with significant challenges: childhood cancers are rare and remain among the most difficult to treat, with survival rates for high-risk cases largely unchanged for decades. Thanks to the 2025 Joseph & Dorothy Giddan Child Health Research Award, Kyle MacQuarrie, MD, PhD, will work to change that.
The Giddan Award, administered by the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute, supports laboratory-based research that expands on the knowledge base in child health. Granting researchers up to $200,000 over a two-year period, the award fuels innovative projects with the potential to transform pediatric medicine.
For MacQuarrie, assistant professor of Pediatrics and an attending physician at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, the award presents a significant opportunity to advance his research on rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a pediatric tumor of skeletal muscle that is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children. Despite affecting approximately 350 children in the U.S. each year, RMS treatment strategies have remained stagnant for decades — especially for the highest-risk cases, in which survival rates remain at 10% or less.
Only about four percent of federal cancer research funding by the NCI goes to pediatric cancer. With so few research dollars — comparatively speaking — dedicated to the sort of research I do, funding sources like this are incredibly important and very much appreciated.”
“Receiving this award is thrilling as an early career researcher,” says MacQuarrie. “Only about four percent of federal cancer research funding by the National Cancer Institute goes to pediatric cancer. With so few research dollars — comparatively speaking — dedicated to the sort of research I do, funding sources like this are incredibly important and very much appreciated.”
MacQuarrie’s project, Targeting Chromosomal Organization and Differentiation in Rhabdomyosarcoma Cells, investigates a novel approach to RMS treatment. Rather than focusing solely on destroying tumor cells through chemotherapy or radiation, his research explores differentiation-based therapy — a strategy that aims to force RMS cells to stop growing by mimicking the natural process that regulates normal skeletal muscle development.
“Cancer cells grow out of control, but normally, muscle cells stop growing entirely as part of their typical behavior, a process known as differentiation,” says MacQuarrie, a previous career-development scholar at NUCATS.. “If we can completely understand the differences in organization between cancer and normal muscle, we hope to then translate that to stopping cancer from growing by differentiating it.”
By analyzing chromosomal organization in RMS, his lab’s research could identify a new way to stop tumor progression. In addition to improving survival rates, this breakthrough could reduce the long-term side effects of conventional cancer treatments, which often lead to complications such as heart disease and infertility. If successful, differentiation-based therapy could redefine how pediatric sarcomas are treated, offering a potentially safer and more effective alternative to current approaches.
As NUCATS continues to champion translational research, grants like the Giddan Award ensure that pediatric health research receives the attention and resources it deserves. With researchers such as MacQuarrie leading the way, the grant provides opportunities to drive progress in fields like pediatric oncology that need new ideas.
Written by Alex Miranda
