The pediatric cancer research of Penn State Hershey’s Dr. Hong-Gang Wang has received a $250,000 grant from Hyundai Hope On Wheels. The funds will support his research into whether autophagy – the human cell’s self-cleansing mechanism – can be used to make cancer cells die.

The grant was presented during a Hope On Wheels handprint ceremony at the Children’s Hospital. Several children, many of them patients and their siblings, dipped their hands in paint, then left their multicolored handprints on a white 2014 Hyundai Sonata.

“This award, especially in today's funding climate, will certainly help us move toward our goal of developing more effective and less toxic therapies for pediatric cancers,” Wang said regarding the grant.

The Children's Hospital is one of 36 recipients across the country to receive a 2014 Hyundai Scholar Hope Grant.  In all, Hope On Wheels will award $9 million in research grants this September in honor of National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.  Penn State Hershey, a long-time partner of the organization, has received $935,000 from Hope On Wheels since 2011.