Our Mission
- Establish the world’s leading neuro-oncology translational research laboratory
- Help cure pediatric brain tumors
- Increase awareness of pediatric brain tumors, specifically Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas ("DIPGs")
- Approve grants to support pediatric brain tumor research at healthcare, education & medical research facilities throughout the United States
The Foundation
The Mikey Czech Foundation, Inc. (the “Foundation”) is a 501 © (3) non-profit foundation established by Mikey’s family to finance medical research for pediatric brain tumors, including DIPG pediatric brainstem tumors. Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma brain stem tumors are extremely rare. Approximately 150-200 cases per year are reported nationwide), which unfortunately, relegates this form of cancer to “orphan” status within the medical research community, as too few children develop these type of brain tumors to warrant the necessary investment of scarce medical research dollars to find a cure. Because these tumors could not be biopsied until recently, what little research that is being done uses adult blastomas as proxies for DIPG research. The problem is blastomas are not a very good proxy for DIPG's. The Foundation will approve grants to support research at healthcare, education and medical research facililties throughout the United States to assist research in this area.