Who We Fund

The Ohio State University

I am an Associate Professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Biomedical Informatics at The Ohio State University. My laboratory investigates epigenomic, genetic and other molecular features of a broad range of hematological malignancies, with a focus on B cell lymphoma and acute myeloid leukemia. I explores high-throughput epigenetic and molecular profiling data and combines these analyses with functional evaluation of key genes and molecular pathways. My laboratory is interested in the developmental origins of epigenetic programs in lymphoid and myeloid malignancies and aims to uncover the ontogeny of disease development. Current research focuses on investigating genes that function in establishing aberrant global epigenetic states and landscapes. Beyond fundamental tumor biology, I aims to develop novel molecular diagnostics for clinical stratification and prediction of treatment response, as well as the identification of novel therapeutic targets.

Program Name(s)

Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Initiative

Project Title

Harnessing the epigenome to advance the classification and understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying hairy cell leukemia variant patients

Columbia University School of Nursing

Dr. Melissa Beauchemin is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Columbia University School of Nursing and Scientific Lead of Cancer Care Delivery Research for Columbia’s Minority/Underserved NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP). A nurse scientist and nurse practitioner with more than 15 years of clinical experience, she develops patient-informed, evidence-based interventions to address structural and financial barriers to high-quality cancer care, including access to clinical trials. She serves as Vice-Chair for Cancer Care Delivery Research in the Children’s Oncology Group and co-chairs a national study of financial distress among caregivers of children with leukemia. Her work uses pragmatic, mixed-methods and implementation-science approaches to improve equitable cancer care delivery.

Program Name(s)

Equity in Access

Project Title

A Multilevel Intervention to Improve Enrollment in Clinical Trials Among Adolescents and Young Adults and Older Adults with Blood Cancer

Medical College of Wisconsin

Siegfried Janz, MD, DSc, Professor and William G. Schuett, Jr., Multiple Myeloma Endowed Chair directs translational myeloma research at the Division of Hematology, Oncology & Bone Marrow Transplantation, Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee. After obtaining his medical degree and board certification in Clinical Immunology from Leipzig University Medical School, Germany, he received advanced training in genetic and biological pathways of myeloma development at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland. In 2018 he relocated his laboratory to Milwaukee, where he works in close association with his clinical colleagues to enhance our understanding of the natural history of myeloma and improve myeloma treatment and outcomes. His ongoing efforts concentrate on the design and testing of novel immunotherapies that rely on patient-derived T lymphocytes to seek out and kill myeloma.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Improving outcomes of multiple myeloma using TGF-beta resistant BCMA-targeted CAR T cells

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Dr. Stanley C. Lee, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. He received his graduate degree at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia, followed by postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Dr. Lee’s laboratory focuses on defining the molecular basis of blood cell production and how its dysregulation can lead to hematologic disorders such as age-related clonal hematopoiesis, myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia. He is interested in understanding the role of post-transcriptional regulators including RNA splicing factors and helicases in the pathogenesis of myeloid leukemias. One of his long-term goals is to translate basic research findings into new therapies for leukemia patients.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Targeting oncogenic splicing with engineered T-cells in high-risk MDS and AML

Duke University

I am a board-certified oncologist and palliative care physician, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Duke University School of Medicine, and member of the Duke Cancer Institute. My practice focuses on the care of patients with blood cancers, while my research examines “patient experience” issues in hematology. As founding director of the Cancer Patient Experience Research Program (CPEP), I conduct randomized trials of integrated palliative care interventions in cancer care, and other patient experience studies, and have published over 175 manuscripts to date. I co-led the first-ever multisite, randomized trial of integrated palliative care in hematology, showing that palliative care integration dramatically improves quality of life, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress among patients with acute myeloid leukemia hospitalized for high-dose chemotherapy. I am widely recognized as a leading expert in palliative care and patient experience research in hematology.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Patient Experience Research and Palliative Care Integration in Malignant Hematology

Columbia University Medical Center

Teresa Palomero is a Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and an internationally recognized cancer researcher in the field of leukemia and lymphoma. For more than 25 years, she has studied how genetic and molecular changes cause aggressive blood cancers and how to translate this knowledge into new treatments. Her discoveries have helped define the genetic basis of several T-cell lymphomas and leukemias and identified new therapeutic targets. Her laboratory has also developed advanced mouse models to better understand disease biology and preclinical testing of precision therapies. Dr. Palomero’s work has been published in leading scientific journals and has contributed to shaping the current understanding of T-cell lymphomas, paving the way for the development of targeted therapies.

Program Name(s)

Discovery

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Targeting Microenvironment Determinants in Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma

Therapeutic Targeting of Sphingosine-1-phosphate Receptor 1 in Angioimmunoblastic T-Cell Lymphoma

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Dr. Dusetzina is an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and an Ingram associate professor of cancer research at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She received her PhD in Pharmaceutical Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and post-doctoral training at the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard. She is a health services researcher focusing on the intersection between health policy, epidemiology, and economics related to prescription drugs. Dr. Dusetzina’s work has contributed to the evidence base for the role of drug costs on patient access to care and policy changes that might improve patient access and reduce spending on high-priced drugs, including those used to treat cancer. She has been recognized for her work at a national level, including being an invited participant for two working group meetings on “Patient Access to Affordable Cancer Drugs,” hosted by the President’s Cancer Panel, and being selected to co-author a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report on the same topic. Dr. Dusetzina was recently appointed to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and is engaged in national policy related to access to care for Medicare beneficiaries. Dr. Dusetzina will co-direct the project with Dr. Nicholas, who has considerable experience using the Health and Retirement Study to assess economic effects of health.

Program Name(s)

Equity in Access

Project Title

Making the Right Choice: Medicare Plan Selection and Access to Cancer Care

Stanford

I am a hematologist/oncologist specializing in the treatment of multiple myeloma and related disorders. I am an Associate Professor in the Division of BMT/ Cell Therapy Division at Stanford University. I lead the Myeloma Disease Focused Group and am the Associate Director for Clinical Research for the Division. I have a broad research portfolio that includes clinical trials of novel therapies in myeloma, translational and outcomes research. I have a special focus on immunotherapy related research and am the principal investigator of several clinical trials of CAR-T cell therapy and bispecific antibodies in myeloma. I also co-lead a multi-center consortium of academic medical centers in the US collaborating to generate insights from real-world application of CAR-T therapy and bispecific antibodies in myeloma. I am actively involved with cooperative groups and professional societies, including holding leadership positions with the goal of advancing treatment of hematological disorders.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Improving Immunotherapy in Multiple Myeloma Through Innovative Clinical Trials, Real-World Evidence and Correlative Research

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Dr. Keisuke Ito is an Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he has also served as the Director of Scientific Resources at the Stem Cell Institute. After his postdoctoral training, first at Keio University, where he also completed his clinical training, and then at Harvard, he joined the Einstein faculty in 2012. Dr. Ito’s team has focused on advancing our understanding of the regulatory pathways controlling the equilibrium of stem cells. At the core of his work is the process of stem cell division, and the balance between self-renewal and differentiation, which directly impacts tissue homeostasis and the development of hematological malignancies. Dr. Ito is devoted to targeting mitophagy, a mitochondrial quality-control process, as a therapeutic strategy, and has cut a path along the leading edge of research into the role of Ten-eleven translocation in the pathogenesis of myelodysplastic syndrome.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Targeting mitophagy of leukemia stem cells for therapy

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Dr. Maximilian Merz is a hematologist-oncologist and Associate Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York specializing in multiple myeloma and focused on the optimization of CAR T therapies. Following his medical training in Heidelberg, Germany, and a research fellowship at Roswell Park Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, he held a clinical leadership role as head of the Early Clinical Trial Unit in Leipzig, Germany. His translational research uses advanced bioinformatic analyses of longitudinal and spatially-resolved single-cell multi-omics to understand treatment response, resistance, and side effects. Dr. Merz has published as first and senior author in Nature Medicine, Nature Cancer, Cancer Cell, JCO, and Lancet Hematology, serves on the editorial board of Leukemia, and has received awards from ASH, ASCO, and EHA. His goal is to develop curative immunotherapies for multiple myeloma and to make long-term remission achievable for most patients by 2030.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Deciphering the natural history of CAR T cells using single-cell resolution data

University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus

Dr. Arnon Haran is a physician-scientist specializing in hematology and blood cancers. He earned his M.D. from Tel Aviv University and completed residency training in internal medicine at Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, where he was selected for the institution’s prestigious physician-scientist program. He then pursued a fellowship in hematology, during which he developed a strong interest in cancer metabolism. Dr. Haran is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado in the laboratory of Prof. Craig Jordan. His research focuses on understanding how leukemia cells use metabolic pathways to survive therapy and cause relapse, with the goal of developing smarter, more targeted therapies for patients with blood cancers.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Methionine metabolism as a vulnerability of leukemic stem cells and a therapeutic target in high-risk AML

Fox Chase Cancer Center

Dr. Nakhoda is a clinician-scientist in the department of hematology/oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center. She serves as steering committee member for the Blood Cancer United-supported Philadelphia Lymphoma rounds and is a panelist on the NCCN Guidelines for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. She has a research focus on improving tolerability of lymphoma and leukemia directed therapies in elderly patients and those with medical comorbidities, actively running an investigator-initiated study evaluating methods to improve methotrexate toxicity in this population. She is well suited to serve as primary investigator for this proposed project having served as local site PI for several multi-institutional investigational studies in lymphoma and with now 6 years of malignant hematology experience serving the Philadelphia area, first as hematology/oncology fellow at Temple University Hospital System and FCCC and now as an assistant professor at Fox Chase.

Program Name(s)

Equity in Access

Project Title

RECONNECT: Overcoming Racial and Ethnic Inequity in Clinical Trial Enrollment via Clinical Trial Nurse Navigation and Provider Communication Training​