Education

Mercer student receives research award from Joshua’s Wish

Staff reports
Kevin Bucholtz, Labrina Solomon, Shirley Ellis, Matthew Halbert, Suzanne Cassidy and Trent Solomon are pictured after Halbert was honored with a research award.
Kevin Bucholtz, Labrina Solomon, Shirley Ellis, Matthew Halbert, Suzanne Cassidy and Trent Solomon are pictured after Halbert was honored with a research award. Mercer University Submitted photo

Rising Mercer University sophomore Matthew Halbert was recently presented a $5,000 Undergraduate Summer Student Research Award in Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Giloma from Joshua’s Wish, a local nonprofit organization.

Joshua’s Wish was formed in 2010 after Trent and Labrina Solomon’s son, Joshua, passed away at the age of 5 from DIPG, an inoperable brain tumor. The organization is dedicated to funding national medical research efforts to find a cure for pediatric brain tumors, to support families of children in Georgia who have cancer and are undergoing treatment and to raise awareness of childhood cancer.

Halbert, a biochemistry and molecular biology major from Fayetteville, will spend the summer researching current treatments of DIPG with pediatric neuropathologist Dr. Cynthia Hawkins at Toronto’s world-renowned Hospital for Sick Children

This story was originally published June 2, 2016 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Mercer student receives research award from Joshua’s Wish."

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