Stories of progress, inspiration, and information in overcoming osteosarcoma.

#RadicalCollaboration to Cure Osteosarcoma

Radical Collaboration: Team Science in Osteosarcoma Research

With $15 million in funding, OSI and the broader osteosarcoma community, pediatric cancer foundations, and Break Through Cancer (BTC) have teamed up to bring BTC’s team-based approach to osteosarcoma, bringing together investigators from across the country and around the world.

Break Through Cancer was launched in 2021 with a unique, team-based approach to curing some of the hardest-to-treat cancers where progress has been elusive, including glioblastoma, leukemia, ovarian, and pancreatic. Now, it is adding osteosarcoma, its first pediatric, adolescent, and young adult cancer, to the list.

When OSI Strategic Advisory Board member Alejandro Sweet-Cordero, MD, Institute Director Lee Helman, MD, and President Mac Tichenor approached BTC President Tyler Jacks, PhD, about the osteosarcoma and pediatric cancer communities partnering to tackle the most common pediatric bone cancer, Dr. Jacks did not hesitate.

“It did not take us long to recognize that this was a good fit for us. Osteosarcoma is a devastating disease for which progress is desperately needed and where a team-based approach could really make a difference,” Dr. Jacks says. “I am extremely optimistic that this approach is going to work across the board, and I am particularly excited about the possibilities of extending our efforts in osteosarcoma.”

Team Science: A Collaborative Approach to Cancer Research

While cancer researchers are increasingly taking a team science approach, BTC is taking the concept several steps further. The organization calls it “radical collaboration,” and it involves bringing researchers in various fields of science together to solve problems without restriction and without hierarchy, barriers that can get in the way of progress.

“Part of our motivation to form Break Through Cancer was that there is more that can be done if we collectively galvanize the efforts of cancer researchers across the country to work together, to think together, to develop their projects together, to share data and discoveries together — to advance the field as a collective effort,” Dr. Jacks says.

“There is more that can be done if we collectively galvanize the efforts of cancer researchers across the country to work together, to think together, to develop their projects together, to share data and discoveries together — to advance the field as a collective effort.” — Tyler Jacks, PhD

Here is how radical collaboration works:

First, BTC brings together investigators and disease experts at a workshop where they identify the problems that are getting in the way of curing a disease and brainstorm projects to address those problems. The group consists of researchers from five of the top cancer centers in the country: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, along with invited experts from other U.S. and international cancer center and research institutions.

Next, a leadership team coalesces to create a comprehensive, detailed four-year plan for a program that runs from discovery through clinical trials. The plan is developed and stringently vetted by the BTC Scientific Advisory Board in an iterative process that spans 6 to 12 months. If all goes well, the final plan is recommended to the BTC Board of Directors, which approves the project to proceed. The Osteosarcoma project received Board approval in May 2025.

The plan involves a virtual TeamLab with researchers from each participating institution who work together virtually from their own labs on their assigned part of the problem. Using BTC’s collaborative technology, they share discoveries and data in real-time, so no one has to wait for updates to continue their work. Along the way, BTC Project Liaisons support the project by checking in on progress to ensure projects are moving as swiftly as possible and to help troubleshoot any barriers that arise, allowing researchers to focus solely on the science. The eight participating institutions for the Osteosarcoma project are listed below.

• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
• The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
• BC Cancer Research Institute
• Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University
• Stanford Medicine
• The UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center

“The concept of a TeamLab is fundamentally different,” says Jesse Boehm, PhD, BTC’s chief science officer. “It is a virtual group of people — investigators, clinicians, software engineers, data scientists, postdocs, senior people, and everyone in between — that want to work together almost as one laboratory, sharing data and information in real-time, sharing resources, and rebudgeting as the scientific plan evolves to achieve a common goal.”

The Osteosarcoma Community Pledges Its Support

OSI leadership and others in the osteosarcoma community have hoped to create a collaborative, comprehensive project for osteosarcoma for years but did not have the resources to get it off the ground.

“We learned quickly what a monumental job it is to pull together the necessary people and provide the infrastructure to do something like this, not to mention working out thorny problems like publication credit and intellectual property,” Tichenor says. “We were thrilled to learn that much of the work that we found so daunting had already been tackled by BTC.”

BTC agreed to provide $5 million in funding to seed the osteosarcoma project, with the understanding that an additional $10 million would need to come from the osteosarcoma and pediatric cancer communities. Tichenor quickly enlisted Alli Murdoff, cofounder of Battle Osteosarcoma, Michael Egge, cofounder of the Osteosarcoma Collaborative, and turned to OSI’s development team. The BTC fundraising team, led by Chief Philanthropy Officer Lisa Schwarz, also provided invaluable assistance.

On September 5, 2025, with unprecedented unity among a coalition of families touched by osteosarcoma, advocacy organizations, and philanthropic foundations, the fundraising goal was achieved, and the project was cleared for launch.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” says Egge. “I am beyond excited at the progress we have made, but more importantly, the progress we can make going forward together.”

Thank you to the BTC osteosarcoma project donors:
The Osteosarcoma Institute, Battle Osteosarcoma, Terry Fox Research Institute, QuadW Foundation, The Bardo Foundation, St. Baldrick’s Foundation, Children’s Cancer Research Fund, Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research, Lyda Hill Philanthropies, MIB Agents Osteosarcoma Alliance, TeamIzzy Foundation, The Power of Will, Turn it Gold, The Fichtenbaum Charitable Trust, and the family donors touched by osteosarcoma, Mike and April Egge, Mary Anne and Paul Fego, Macen C Holderman Charitable Giving Fund, The Shumadine Family, Sid and Karen Sijbrandij, Zach Sobiech Osteosarcoma Fund, Mac and Lisa Tichenor.