UCLA physician-scientist awarded $400,000 for pediatric cancer research by Hyundai Hope on Wheels

Steven Jonas, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist breaking ground in the development of new technologies for pediatric cancer at UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital, has received a $400,000 Hyundai Scholar Hope grant from Hyundai Hope on Wheels, a nonprofit dedicated to curing childhood cancer.

The grant brings the total awarded by the organization to UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital to more than $2 million since 2010.

Jonas accepted the grant at a July 20 ceremony attended by Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health, CEO of UCLA Hospital System and associate vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences; Sherin Devaskar, MD, executive chair of pediatrics; Theodore Moore, MD, chief of pediatric oncology at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital; and Hyundai leadership; as well as physicians, researchers and UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital patients.

More than a dozen young cancer patients being treated at UCLA participated in the program’s signature handprint ceremony, where they dipped their hands in paint and placed their handprints on a white 2023 Hyundai IONIQ 5 and the doctor’s lab coat.

This award will support Dr. Jonas, who is also an assistant professor of pediatric oncology, and his colleagues, whose research targets the development of liquid biopsy diagnostic tools that leverage nanotechnologies to monitor how pediatric cancers respond to treatments and their ability to metastasize.

Click here to read the rest of the press release. This story was originally posted in the UCLA Health Newsroom.

CTSI would like to congratulate Dr. Steven Jonas, a previous 2017 and 2019 Voucher Awardee and 2018 KL2 Scholar, on his Hyundai Scholar Hope research grant.

Image caption: Dr. Steven Jonas and a patient at UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital put their handprints on a Hyundai during a celebration of Dr. Jonas receiving a $400,000 research grant.

Image source: Photo by Todd Cheney/UCLA Health