The Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University and Wellstar MCG Health have announced that David Munn, MD, has been awarded a 20/20: Alumni Visionary Grant from Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research. The award is part of Rally Foundation’s 2026 record-breaking $7 million grant distribution, funding 94 researchers across 48 institutions worldwide.

Munn, who was recently named as the new director of the Georgia Cancer Center, is a physician-scientist and has been a full-time researcher at the Medical College of Georgia since 1990. Together with his research partner, Theodore Johnson, MD, Munn’s research focuses on pediatric brain tumors, including ependymoma, medulloblastoma and glioblastoma, with an emphasis on immunotherapy approaches. This work aims to create de novo responsiveness to checkpoint-blockade therapy in children, using advanced immunology, animal models and data science.

Munn and his collaborators have developed new drugs and clinical strategies to activate the immune response against tumors, and to enlist the patients’ own immune system to enhance the effectiveness and lower the toxicity of conventional chemotherapy drugs. Target diseases include adult and pediatric solid tumors and leukemias. Munn’s research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and is supported by multiple charitable foundation donors including the Rally Foundation.

“We are honored to receive this support from Rally Foundation,” Munn said. “Rally has been a long-term supporter of the Pediatric Immunotherapy Program, and this grant will enable us to test cutting-edge new treatment strategies and accelerate them rapidly into clinical trials.”

This award builds on prior work from the CureSearch and Rally co-funded clinical trial, in collaboration with Johnson. Continued investment reflects the strength of this research and its potential to advance new treatment strategies for pediatric cancer patients.

Rally grants are awarded based on a competitive dual peer-review process conducted by the Rally Medical Advisory Board, an international team of leading childhood cancer experts. The grants fund all levels of research, from science at the bench to translational, and they include fellows, young investigators and independent investigators.

Results from Munn’s and Johnson’s clinical trials are revealing that when the immune system is activated by the right kind of immunotherapy, conventional chemotherapy and radiation can be used at modest, well-tolerated doses, and still achieve effectiveness better than either approach by itself.

The goal is to develop low-toxicity, well-tolerated outpatient regimens that do not require hospitalization, and provide patients with a good quality of life and return to activities such as school and work. Our clinical trials focus mainly on relapsed childhood brain tumors because the need for new treatments is so great in these children. But the same approaches can be applied to other childhood malignancies, and to adult tumors as well, so the potential impact is wide-ranging.

“It was an honor to select Dr. Munn for the Dean and Reid Crowe Rally Legacy of Hope Grant as we mark 20 years of funding childhood cancer research,” said Dean Crowe, founder and CEO of Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research. “This award is one of 10 20/20: Alumni Visionary Grants created to recognize researchers whose work has the potential to drive meaningful progress for children facing cancer. Dr. Munn’s research reflects the innovation and dedication we look for, and we are proud to support efforts that move us closer to better treatments and, ultimately, cures.”

View the full list of 2026 Rally Foundation grant recipients.