WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amazon Web Services committed $10 million to fund pediatric rare disease research, including cancer, on Wednesday at its annual summit in the nation's capital.
The tranche of cash is first being allocated through three, $1 million grants to Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.; Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio; and the Children’s Brain Tumor Network, located at the Children’s Hospital Of Philadelphia.
AWS says the unrestricted cash grant will allow the children’s cancer centers, which are already using AWS software, to continue innovation in accelerating pediatric research, improving well-being for children and empowering the professional pediatric workforce and caregivers of children.
Experts in pediatric cancer treatment and research say many pediatric cancers and other rare diseases are understudied and underfunded, which can lead families and children to few treatment options. When the diseases are studied, the studies are often limited to one institution and a small patient sample, according to an AWS blog post.
The remaining $7 million will supply the AWS IMAGINE Grant: Children’s Health Innovation Award to be doled out to nonprofits to advance pediatric rare disease research, maternal child total health or empower the pediatric workforce and caregivers. The grant also offers AWS Promotional Credits, which can be applied towards implementing AWS Cloud technology and other software into the nonprofit’s work on pediatric rare diseases.
AWS says cloud technology could help researchers understand the genetic makeup of pediatric rare diseases with de-identified and anonymized data. Nationwide Children’s Hospital is already using the cloud to compute on genomic data and share its results, the funding announcement said.
Through promoting greater adoption of the cloud, AWS aims to create a mutual “sandbox” for pediatric researchers to share work and break down siloed datasets in the already narrow and understudied field. Nonprofits do not have to use or adopt AWS technology to receive a grant, an AWS spokesperson clarified. The funds will be available to nonprofits across the globe.
AWS’ funding announcement also touts the promise of artificial intelligence to improve screening of pediatric rare diseases and personalize treatment plans.
“Creating cloud-based data repositories is only the first step to more effectively treat rare childhood diseases,” the announcement said. “AWS can power data-driven insights and innovative applications to enhance care, increase efficiency of care delivery, and personalize treatment plans.”
Children’s National has already begun using AI to screen infants for rare genetic conditions, the announcement says.