Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Institute for Cancer and Blood Disorders
- Overview
- Moseley Foundation Institute
- Research & Care
- Endowment
- Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation
A Gift That Sets a New Standard for Care and Treatment
Nemours Children’s is built on a vision of providing world-class, compassionate care to children. Our Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Institute for Cancer and Blood Disorders embraces this ambition. It replaces the Nemours Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders (NCCBD), but this is much more than a name change. It’s a dramatic expansion of the scope of care we deliver.
With the support of a $78 million donation from the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation, the Institute allows us to care and serve more children, in new and improved ways. We can house new programs, recruit more talent, and make immediate and long-term impacts in treatment and research.
We’re raising the bar for pediatric cancer and blood disorder care — helping children in Delaware and beyond. It’s part of going well beyond medicine, by looking at all the factors that contribute to the health and well-being of children.
Learn About the Moseley Foundation Institute
New Investment, new future — same mission: Improve the lives of children.
A Space for Collaborative Care and Life-Changing Research
While our cancer and blood center has helped thousands of children over the years, the Lisa Dean Moseley Institute will allow us to fully unlock our potential and address emerging needs.
With both inpatient and outpatient units, the institute features a tailored space that brings all care and research under the same roof. It’s one of the most significant programmatic and capital expansions in our health system’s history. Rather than the space shaping the care, the space is designed around the care.
The new facility will foster research advances, innovation and collaboration. By centralizing all aspects of treatment, we can better support our patients’ physical, mental and emotional well-being. The Moseley Foundation Institute’s design, which will be informed by patient family input and best practices, will create a space where all patient needs can be addressed, and staff can provide compassionate care in an environment that ensures family privacy and comfort. The space will incorporate the latest technology and architectural design to promote healing and recovery.
We know that the bed is often the worst place to receive chemotherapy. Studies show that play and exercise improve not only clinical outcomes, but emotional healing by reducing some toxic effects of therapy. Even if the time in clinic is small, training a child to think they belong in a bed is not the best model. We will provide children with the right healing environment that will allow them to associate treatments with wellness. Children do not need to be encouraged to play and be well — we will provide them with the space and opportunity to do so.
The Moseley Foundation Institute’s design will facilitate the growth of our clinical trial program. Currently, Nemours Children’s is second in the United States in clinical trial enrollment for cancer and blood disorder patients.1 Additional space designed to envelop patients and families and support them through their entire care journey will also allow for greater participation in clinical trials. This will help children treated not only in Delaware, but throughout the country and around the world as new treatment paradigms advance.
In addition to the physical space, the gift establishes a Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Presidential Endowed Chair for Institute Director. This leader will support work in patient care, research and other high-priority areas.
1-National Cancer Institute
"The new Moseley Foundation Institute will positively influence pediatric cancer and blood disorder care worldwide."
– Nemours Children’s Health President and CEO R. Lawrence Moss, MD
Floorplan for the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Institute for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Nemours Children’s Health.
The Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Institute was established to improve the health of children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer, sickle cell disease and other blood disorders. The Moseley Foundation Institute enables collaborative education and research and clinical advances through dedicated funding, enhancement of academic partnerships and innovative application of novel approaches. The findings of the Moseley Foundation Institute will be shared with health care communities worldwide through the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation International Symposium.
Addressing Needs in Sickle Cell Disease Research and Care
One in 365 African American children in the United States is born with sickle cell disease.1 Sickle cell disease is an excruciating and debilitating blood disorder that causes tremendous suffering and early death, particularly in African American children. The disease is one of the most profound examples of race-based inequity in the U.S. health care system. Sickle cell disease research and treatment is massively underfunded compared to similar diseases that primarily afflict white children.2 Currently, sickle cell clinical trials are half as likely to be completed and published as other trials due to insufficient support.3
Nemours is among the leading institutions in the country in sickle cell treatment and research and in directly combatting health inequity. In 2016, Nemours was awarded $10.2 million and designated the only Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) for sickle cell disease in America by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In 2021, Nemours received a $10.5 million NIH COBRE renewal grant to support the Nemours-led Delaware Comprehensive Sickle Cell Research Program. This award brings NIH funding for clinical, translational and psychosocial research in sickle cell disease at Nemours to $20.7 million. Nemours looks forward to leveraging the gift from the Moseley Foundation to further this important work.
The Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Endowed Chair for Sickle Cell Disease will accelerate research, enhance better and more effective patient-centered treatment paradigms and place a laser focus on identifying and eliminating barriers to accessing care and lifesaving clinical trials. Doing so ensures that every child receives the expert care they need, regardless of race, social or economic circumstances.
1-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Data & Statistics on Sickle Cell Disease
2-Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Comparison of US Federal and Foundation Funding of Research for Sickle Cell Disease and Cystic Fibrosis and Factors Associated With Research Productivity
3-National Library of Medicine, Attitudes Towards Clinical Trials Among Patients With Sickle Cell Disease
"Nemours helps us navigate this disease.”
"I feel very blessed for the expertise and support from my incredible team at Nemours."
Advancing Pediatric Cancer Care
Sickle cell disease isn’t the only area of opportunity. Currently, only 4% of federal cancer research funding goes to pediatric cancer.1
We are proud to offer children in our care access to these groundbreaking treatment options. And we believe we can do even more.
The Moseley Foundation Institute will feature the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Institute Endowed Laureate Program. Guided by an annual research goal statement, a scientific review board will consider proposals for funding from around the world. The board will focus on engaging leading global research teams from a variety of disciplines, both inside and outside traditional laboratories. A portion of these funds will be allocated to junior investigators each year.
Finally, a Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation International Symposium, held every other year, will help international scholars learn from one another. It will also highlight Moseley Foundation Institute accomplishments.
At Nemours, we’re proud of the exceptional care we’ve been privileged to offer. Our most recent efforts are a continuation of that excellence. We aim to advance care for all children, both within our walls and well beyond them.
Building on Achievements in Blood Disorders and Cancer
Creating the new institute is not the first time we have taken bold, ambitious plans and turned them into reality, including for cancer and blood disorders. Since the start of the NCCBD 30 years ago, our team, with support from the Moseley Foundation and others, has achieved many milestones.
4%
2
48 Beds
Highlights include:
Conducted innovative research projects — initiated by our investigators — targeting sickle cell disease. We have focused on developing novel diagnostic tools and improving the way research is approached. We have also created intervention strategies to address the effects of racism and stigma on managing the disease.
Created the only sickle cell center in the country designated a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center of Biomedical Research.
Developed two fully accredited transplant and cellular therapy programs.
Secured the designation of a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Community Oncology Research Program — one of just two children’s hospitals nationally to do so.
Ranked second nationally in enrolling children in NCI-funded trials for cancer and blood disorders.
Learn more about the services we can provide.
We have a wide array of oncology expertise and services all in one health system.
Supporting Fertility Preservation through the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation Fertility Preservation Program
Chemotherapy is a treatment that can save lives, but it may affect the ability to have children later on. We partner with fertility experts to help kids and teens who are going through chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Our program provides information and support on ways they may be able to preserve their ability to have children in the future.
We’re called the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation Fertility Preservation Program at the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Institute for Cancer and Blood Disorders. Our program has experts from different medical areas who can offer options to preserve fertility, such as:
- Freezing eggs
- Freezing ovarian tissue
- Moving ovaries away from radiation
- Freezing sperm
- Freezing testicular tissue
Our team will talk to you about all the options and help you understand the potential benefits and risks. Here's what you can expect:
- Timely counseling so your child can start treatment quickly. We will meet with you before treatment begins. These early meetings may offer more options and prevent care delays in treatment plans.
- Education about how the treatment might affect fertility. We will answer any questions you have and help you with any worries you might have about money or medical issues. We want to give you all the information you need to make the best choices for your child's future.
- Support every step of the way. Preserving fertility can be complicated and involve meeting with other specialists, such as reproductive endocrinologists. We will help arrange related treatment and services.
Questions about our program? Please contact us at (302) 651-5754 or fertilitypreservation@nemours.org.
For more information on cancer and fertility, visit Nemours KidsHealth.org.
Honoring a Legacy of Compassionate Vision and Generosity
Lisa Dean Moseley was born in 1929 in Wilmington, Delaware to Paulina du Pont Dean and J. Simpson Dean, Sr. As a child, Lisa grew up across the Brandywine River within several miles of the Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware (at that time known as the Alfred I. duPont Institute).
Throughout her life, Lisa continued the du Pont family legacy of philanthropy, including her support of innovative medical research in the fields of cancer and stem cell therapy. She had a particular interest in supporting research into otherwise overlooked and underfunded areas. Her vibrant and vivacious personality permeated all that she did, including her philanthropic efforts and great love for gardening, the outdoors and golf (a sport that she excelled at early in her life).
Formed in 2004, the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports basic medical and scientific research. The Foundation generally accomplishes these goals by collaborating with and funding research and clinical programs undertaken by highly qualified organizations such as Nemours Children’s Health, the American Cancer Society, the Helen Graham Cancer Center and the Cleveland Clinic (among many other research institutions supported by grants made by the Foundation since its formation).
The Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation strives to support groundbreaking research and clinical programs with the goal of improving outcomes and saving patient lives.
To that end, the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Institute for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Nemours Children’s Health was founded in 2023 to improve the health and well-being of children with cancer and blood disorders by addressing a range of challenges through improvement initiatives that span education, research, clinical care and quality of life. Lisa’s legacy of generosity will forever touch the lives of countless children and adults bravely confronting difficult diagnoses and trying treatments.