Brent Eley Foundation Lectureship Program

Brent Eley Foundation Lectureship at Pediatric Grand Rounds

Friday

March 29, 2024 12:30–1:30 p.m.

Mt. Oxford 2nd Floor Conference Center Children’s Hospital Colorado or via Zoom: https://bit.ly/PedsGR24

“Engineering and Testing New Immunotherapies for Children with Cancer” Robbie Majzner, MD

The Brent Eley Foundation Lectureship The Brent Eley Foundation Lectureship, in partnership with Brent's Place and Children's Hospital Colorado, is an annual program that hosts medical experts from around the country, encouraging shared knowledge and collaboration in service of advancing treatment outcomes for families facing a medical crisis.

Robbie Majzner, MD

Director, Pediatric and Young Adult Cancer Cell Therapy Program Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center Robbie Majzner, MD, is the Director of the Pediatric and Young Adult Cancer Cell Therapy Program at Dana Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children’s Hospital. He is focused on the development and deployment of immunotherapies for pediatric cancer. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School followed by training in pediatrics at New York Presbyterian-Columbia and pediatric hematology-oncology at Johns Hopkins and the National Cancer Institute. His work in the laboratory centers on engineering platform technologies to improve the efficacy of CAR T cells in solid tumors and overcome therapeutic resistance. Concurrently, he is focused on translating laboratory advances in innovative clinical trials for children with incurable cancers.

About Brent’s Place

Brent’s Place was founded by Donn and Linda Eley as a tribute to their son, Brent, who was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma at the age of thirteen in 1987.

Because of his aggressive and rare type of pediatric cancer, Brent required a bone marrow transplant, the best chance for survival. However, no facility in his hometown was able to provide this treatment, which meant the family was forced to relocate to Iowa for more than six months.

Not only were they separated from their community of support during the most challenging time of their lives, the difficult responsibility of finding and maintaining a safe and clean "home away from home" for their immune-compromised son fell squarely on their own shoulders. This burden only added to the financial, psychological, and emotional toll they faced during this medical crisis. Sadly, following a brave fight, Brent passed away.

Though they were heartbroken, the Eleys were committed to helping other families experiencing a similar struggle. They spent the next nine years raising funds in support of pediatric cancer programs in Brent’s honor, and in 1998, shortly after the Brent Eley Foundation was established, the first Brent's Place facility opened its doors. Since then, we have provided a Safe-Clean home away from home to thousands of families from around the country and across the globe. For more information, please visit brentsplace.org.