Jennifer Woyach
CLL trials
Jennifer Woyach, MD
Columbus, OH
United States
The Ohio State University
I am a tenured Professor in the Division of Hematology at The Ohio State University, with a focus on translational research in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, the Associate Director for Clinical Research within the Division of Hematology, the Section Head for the CLL/Hairy cell leukemia group, and the co-leader of the Leukemia Research Program within the OSUCCC. I am the PI for multiple early-stage clinical trials investigating novel targeted therapies for CLL and other hematologic malignancies, chaired the intergroup Phase III study A041202 which investigated chemoimmunotherapy versus targeted therapy as initial therapy for older adults with CLL, and now chair A041702 which is investigating continuous versus intermittent targeted therapy in the same patient population. My laboratory research focuses on resistance to targeted therapies in CLL. Our group identified C481S and PLCG2 mutations as the primary resistance mechanisms for covalent BTK inhibitors and were the first to investigate reversible BTK inhibitors preclinically as a strategy to circumvent BTK inhibitor resistance.
Program Name(s)
Translational Research Program
Project Title
Inhibition of PKCβ as a strategy for BTK inhibitor refractory CLL
Catherine Diefenbach
DLBCL immunology
Catherine Diefenbach, MD
New York, NY
United States
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
I am a translational lymphoma researcher and associate professor at the NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center (PCC). My research focuses on the relationship between lymphoma, microenvironment, and systemic immunity. I lead an R01 funded study of the microbiome in DLBCL, and and serve as PI on a multi-investigator R01 investigating new immune strategies for CAR T cells. I have presented data on immune profiling in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) at national and international meetings. Clinically, I have led the effort to integrate immune based approaches into lymphoma therapy, through development of the intergroup Phase 2 protocol E4412 combining brentuximab, nivolumab, and ipilimumab in relapsed HL. I have obtained funding for my research from: the NCI, the ACS, the Lymphoma Research Foundation, Doris Duke (internally awarded), and the NCI Clinical Investigator Team Leader Award for my work with ECOG-ACRIN. My expertise in lymphoma immunology makes me well qualified to lead this current project.
Program Name(s)
Translational Research Program
Project Title
T cell Memory in Cure of Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma: An Investigation of the Immune Interactome
Leandro Cerchietti
DLBCL
Leandro Cerchietti, MD
New York, NY
United States
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
My laboratory is committed to transforming lymphoma research into better, more personalized treatments for patients. We study the genetic, epigenetic, metabolic, and microenvironmental factors that drive lymphoma growth and treatment response, with the goal of moving discoveries rapidly from the lab to the clinic. Our research has already helped move new ideas into clinical trials. Our work has helped launch clinical trials, identify biomarkers to guide patient selection, and advance innovative strategies such as epigenetic priming to make chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapies more effective. We also contributed key preclinical findings that supported the development of FDA-approved compounds for relapsed/refractory lymphoma. More recently, we developed a new microenvironment-based classification of B-cell lymphoma that has already improved treatment selection and outcomes in clinical trials.
Program Name(s)
Translational Research Program
Project Title
Targeting the microenvironment to increase immunity and immunotherapy response in DLBCL
Matthew Frank
Lymphoma CART therapy
Matthew Frank, MD PhD
Palo Alto, CA
United States
Stanford University
I am a physician-scientist and an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (BMT&CT). Clinically, I care for patients with high-risk lymphoma and other blood cancers. I am the principal investigator of clinical trials investigating novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for the treatment of relapsed and refractory leukemia and lymphoma. These trials, in part, provide the critical and precious patient samples that are the subject of my laboratory-based research efforts. My research group is dedicated to understanding the clinical outcomes of our patients who receive these immunotherapies with the goal of improving clinical response while minimizing toxicity.
Program Name(s)
Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)
Project Title
Autologous CD22 CAR T cell Therapy for the Treatment of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Philippe Armand
lymphoma and immunotherapy
Philippe Armand, MD, PhD
Boston, MA
United States
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Philippe Armand obtained his MD and PhD (in Biomedical Sciences) from the University of California San Francisco. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2004, and a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in 2007. Since then, he has worked in the Stem Cell Transplantation and Lymphoma Divisions at DFCI. He is currently a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an Institute Physician at DFCI, the Harold and Virginia Lash/David Lash Chair in Lymphoma Research, and the Chief of the Division of Lymphoma. His clinical practice is solely focused on patients with lymphoma. His research interests center on the development of novel therapeutics and assays in lymphoma, with a key focus on the translation of local laboratory research to novel clinical trials. He actively mentors many junior investigators, both fellows and junior faculty, in both clinical care and clinical research.
Program Name(s)
Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)
Project Title
Bispecific antibody-based frontline therapy for follicular lymphoma
Stefan Tarnawsky, MD, PhD
St. Louis, MO
United States
Washington University in St. Louis
Stefan Tarnawsky, M.D.; Ph.D. is a Hematology/Oncology fellow and junior physician scientist at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, MO. His research focus is understanding the origin of myeloid blood cancers. His graduate work at Indiana University with Dr. Merv Yoder and Dr. Rebecca Chan focused on the prenatal origin of childhood blood cancers. This work led to a F30 award from the NHLBI and three first-author research publications, including one in the Journal of Clinical Investigations. Currently, under the mentorship of Dr. Matt Walter, M.D., Stefan studies how splicing factor gene mutations dysregulate blood cell growth. He thereby aims to identify novel therapies for the ~50% of myelodysplastic syndrome patients and ~20% of acute myeloid leukemia patients that have these mutations. His career goal is to continue this research focus as an independent investigator studying and treating blood cancer patients at an academic medical center.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Project Title
Paolo Caimi
CAR-T clinical trial for CLL
Paolo Caimi, MD
Cleveland, OH
United States
Cleveland Clinic
Paolo Caimi is a physician and clinical investigator at the Cleveland Clinic, where he is also the Associate Bone Marrow Transplant Director for Cellular Therapy. Dr. Caimi completed his medical training at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago, Chile. He finished residency at Johns Hopkins University / Sinai Hospital Residency Program in Internal Medicine followed by a hematology and oncology fellowship at Case Western Reserve University. His clinical focus is on the care of patients with lymphoid malignancies and his research is centered around early phase trials, with an emphasis on phase I trials of cellular therapy.
Program Name(s)
Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)
Project Title
BAFF-ligand CAR T-cells and pre-apheresis B-cell lymphodepletion for relapsed/refractory CLL
Jennifer Amengual
lymphomas after transplant
Jennifer Amengual, MD
New York, NY
United States
Columbia University Medical Center
Jennifer Amengual, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University in the Division of Hematology and Oncology. As a physician-scientist, her research goals are to directly translate observations and concepts developed in the laboratory to rational targeted therapies for patients with lymphoma. Dr. Amengual has led many investigator-initiated trials based on data generated in her laboratory through the NCI Cooperative Group Networks, SWOG and ETCTN. Columbia University is a tertiary care center that performs a high number of organ transplants and has an enrichment of PTLD patients. This has generated great interest in how to improve screening and treatment for these patients. Dr. Amengual has spearheaded a PTLD working group that encompasses transplant, infectious disease, lymphoma and cellular therapy specialists from both the adult and pediatric groups. This has led to the development of several studies providing the foundation for the proposed clinical trial.
Program Name(s)
Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)
Project Title
Defining ctDNA monitoring and immune modulation in a novel, risk stratified clinical trial for PTLD
Yang Feng, PhD
Stanford, CA
United States
Stanford University
Yang Feng, PhD, is a postdoc scholar at Stanford University. She conducted research at Georgetown University and completed her doctoral training in Guryanova lab at the University of Florida (UF). Her PhD thesis work depicted the causal relationship of DNMT3A-mutant blood cells on aggressive solid tumors for the first time. She studies the preventive therapy for high-risk TP53-mutant AML with primary human samples during postdoc training in Majeti Lab. She has a track of record of publications on high-impact journals including Cancer Discovery. Her exemplary work merited the UF Outstanding Achievement Award and Predoctoral Award in 2020, ASH Abstract Achievement Award in 2021, Stanford PRISM Award in 2022 and the “Best of Year” Award of JEM in 2023, Stanford TRAM Pilot Grant for 2023-2025 and ASH Abstract Achievement Award in 2025. Her career goal is becoming an independent investigator in hematological malignancy research, to discover effective therapeutics for blood cancers.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Project Title
Therapeutic potential of DOCK1 inhibition in preventing and treating TP53-mutant AML
Jean Koff
Disparities in DLBCL
Jean Koff, MD, MSc
Atlanta, GA
United States
Winship Cancer Institute
Dr. Jean Koff is an Associate Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology and Director of the Lymphoma Program’s Translational Research Team at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Her clinical expertise in lymphoma is complemented by her research characterizing the immunologic and genetic factors that contribute to poor outcomes in lymphoma patient populations under-represented in most studies, such as African Americans and organ transplant recipients. She serves as an investigator on several team science projects involving multi-institutional cohorts of lymphoma patients with integrated analyses of clinical and molecular data, including the Lymphoma Epidemiology of Outcomes cohort study. Dr. Koff is the 2024 Chair of the Scientific Committee on Lymphoid Neoplasia for the American Society of Hematology. Her work has been funded by the Lymphoma Research Foundation, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Cancer Society, and the NIH.
Program Name(s)
Specialized Center of Research Program
Project Title
Translating molecular profiles into treatment approaches to target disparities in lymphoma
Meng Li
Equity in Access
Meng Li, PhD
Houston, TX
United States
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Dr. Meng Li is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Health Services Research at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center and a nonresident fellow at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics at the University of Southern California. Dr. Li completed her PhD in Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy at University of Washington, where co-PI, Dr. Flowers also completed his MS. Dr. Li’s research uses various data sources including population-based cancer registries, nationwide administrative claims databases, national survey data, and data from clinical trials and observational series to examine disease burden, factors that influence health care utilization, the effect of health care utilization on health outcomes, and the cost-sharing burden of prescription drugs. In particular, Her research has used Optum and SEER-Medicare data to examine disparity in initiation of immunotherapies among lung cancer and melanoma patients, the association between spending on several types of treatment and outcomes in breast cancer, and catastrophic spending among cancer patients on oral targeted anticancer medicines. Dr. Li has also developed methods to quantify novel elements of value for medical technologies in economic evaluations, which has important implications on the practice of value assessment. She meets regularly and collaborates with Drs. Shih and Flowers. Dr. Li’s research work has been published in top clinical, health economics, and health policy journals.
Program Name(s)
Equity in Access
Project Title
Jaehyuk Choi
T-cell lymphoma
Jaehyuk Choi, MD, PhD
Dallas, TX
United States
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
I am an NIH-funded physician scientist with a scientific and clinical focus on cutaneous lymphomas. We have utilized high-dimensional genomic, epigenetic, and immunological approaches to elucidate the immunobiology of multiple cutaneous T and B cell lymphomas. We utilize a combination of human and mouse models as well as a number of unbiased approaches including whole genome sequencing, bulk and single cell RNA and ATAC-Seq, epigenetic assays such as ATAC-Seq, CUT&RUN, and HiCHIP, as well as spectral flow and multimodal CITE-Seq. These efforts have led to manuscripts published in Nature, Nature Cancer, Cancer Discovery, and Blood. These efforts have been funded by an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Damon Runyon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and most recently the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Project Title
Identification of novel therapeutic strategies for aggressive subtypes of CTCL