Darlene Rodriguez, co-anchor of “Today in New York” on WNBC, and Andy Epstein, CEO of B&A Food Brokers, both members of the board of the Cristian Rivera Foundation, have each stepped up to support the summer research initiative at the Children’s Brain Tumor Project. The board members will contribute $5,000 each to the “summer sprint” in the CBTP lab.
For three months this summer, five summer fellows and scholars will test multiple drugs and drug combinations against pediatric brain tumor cell lines growing in our lab and in mouse models. These five researchers have been awarded grants from St. Baldrick’s, Alex’s Lemonade Stand, the AANS/NREF, and the Samuel Jeffers Foundation — but those grants cover only stipends to the researchers, not the significant expenses this work will entail. The researchers will need reagents and other supplies, mice, and tech support, among other things, all of which will be paid for by generous donations from Cristian Rivera Foundation board members.
![Andy Epstein, Dr. Mark Souweidane, and John "Gungie" Rivera](/sites/default/files/resize/mark-souweidane-andy-epstein-john-rivera-cristian-rivera-foundation-330-180x140.jpg "Andy Epstein, Dr. Mark Souweidane, and John "Gungie" Rivera")
These new gifts are in addition to the previous summer support from the Cristian Rivera Foundation that was provided thanks to a third board member, Craig Serra. The combined gifts from Craig, Andy, and Darlene make possible the accelerated research this summer will bring. We are so grateful to the Cristian Rivera Foundation and its unfailingly loyal board members for their support.
