Who We Fund

TAP Partner

ImCheck Therapeutics is designing and developing a new generation of immunotherapeutic antibodies targeting butyrophilins, a novel super-family of immunomodulators. These “first-in-class” activating antibodies may be able to produce superior clinical results as compared to the first-generation of immune checkpoint inhibitors and, when used in combination, to overcome resistance to this group of agents.

Program Name(s)

Therapy Acceleration Program

Project Title

A phase 2 expansion study of ICT01, an anti-BTN3A monoclonal antibody, in combination with azacitidine and venetoclax in patients with AML

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Anita Kumar, MD is an Associate Attending at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she specializes in mantle cell lymphoma. Dr. Kumar leads the Memorial Sloan Kettering mantle cell lymphoma research program. She serves as a principal investigator for a number of clinical trials studying novel therapies for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma and novel clinical applications of minimal residual disease assessment. She completed her undergraduate studies in Biochemical Sciences at Harvard College and medical school at Northwestern University. She then completed her internship and residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and subsequently completed her hematology/oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Novel Immunotherapy Combinations in Relapsed, Refractory Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research

Jae Park, MD is an Attending Physician and Chief of Cellular Therapy Service, and a Director of Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Park has written over 100 peer-reviewed articles appearing in New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, Blood, Cancer Discovery and Journal of Clinical Oncology focused on developing effective and safe targeted and immunotherapies and conducting translational studies. To this end, he has successfully conducted over 15 investigator-initiated therapeutic trials in the field of hematologic malignancies and cellular therapy with grant supports from ASH, LLS, ASCO, AACR and NCCN. He is widely recognized as one of the world experts in the field of CAR T cell therapies and ALL and is the leading PI of clinical trials in patients with ALL and CLL/NHL using CAR T, NK cell therapies, BiTEs, IDCs, targeted agents, and immunomodulators.

Program Name(s)

Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)

Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Initiative

Project Title

IL7 receptor-targeted CAR T-cell Therapy for T-Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-ALL)

Developing novel therapeutic approaches for classical and variant hairy cell leukemia

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

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Neha Mehta-Shah, MD, MSCI is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis where she specializes in peripheral and cutaneous T-cell lymphomas. She completed her undergraduate and medical school at Northwestern University and then completed residency at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center. She was the chief resident at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she subsequently completed fellowship and chief fellowship in medical hematology/oncology in 2016. After joining the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis, she has developed a nationally recognized T-cell lymphoma program and completed a Master's of Science in Clinical Investigation. Having a passion for T-cell lymphoma research since medical school, she has been recognized with multiple awards from ASH, the Lymphoma Research Foundation, the T-cell Leukemia Lymphoma Society, the Alliance as well as a Paul Calabresi K12 Award. She leads multiple trials in T-cell lymphoma nationally including the first US Intergroup Study in untreated peripheral T-cell lymphomas, A0501902.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Predictors of response to therapy in A051902, a US Intergroup study of duvelisib+CHO(E)P vs CC-486+CHO(E)P vs CHO(E)P in peripheral T-cell lymphoma

Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

The molecular mechanisms of cell proliferation and the field of Ubiquitin Proteasome System (UPS) have always been our main area of interest and fascination. We have the expertise, training and motivation necessary to study several different aspects of this incredibly broad field. Specifically, the training in mechanistic science, including molecular biology, biochemistry, cell/animal biology, has laid the groundwork to understand how ubiquitin ligases complexes monitor the molecular mechanisms in normal and malignant hematopoiesis. Our work has identified and studied multiple key factors regulating cellular pathways, such as DNA-damage checkpoints, cell cycle, circadian clock, Toll-like-Receptor and NF-κB activation, as documented in ours publications. In addition, we have successfully collaborated with several scientists, and contributed to peer-reviewed publications from each of these projects.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Relevance of ubiquitin dependent proteolysis in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Christopher Hergott, M.D., Ph.D. is a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Associate Pathologist in hematopathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of Rochester and his medical and graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed residency (and chief residency) in Clinical Pathology and a clinical fellowship in Hematopathology at BWH before beginning his postdoctoral research training in the laboratory of Dr. Benjamin Ebert at DFCI. Christopher's research interests lie at the intersection of inflammation and hematopoiesis, with a particular focus on clonal hematopoiesis and its progression to myeloid malignancies. In his free time, Christopher enjoys playing guitar, reading, and travelling.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Defining the role of IL-17A in propelling clonal cytopenia of undetermined significance

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

Medical College of Wisconsin

Nirav Shah, MD, MSHP is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Division of Hematology and Oncology, specializing in lymphoma, stem cell transplant, and CAR-T therapy. He graduated with honors and Alpha Omega Alpha honor society membership from University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine in 2008. He then completed his Internal Medicine residency at the Harvard affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital in 2011. Following residency, he went to the University of Pennsylvania where he completed Hematology/Oncology fellowship and received a Master of Science in Health Policy research in 2015. His current focus is the development of dual targeted anti-CD20, anti-CD19 CAR-T cells (CAR20.19) for B-cell malignancies. Results of a Phase 1 trial with CAR20.19 T-cells were published in Nature Medicine in Oct. 2020. Data from that study directed development of three new CAR20.19 clinical trials led by Dr. Shah all actively enrolling patients.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Improving Bispecific CD20/CD19 CAR T-cell Therapy to Overcome Resistance Mechanisms in B-cell Malignancies

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Steve Treon MD, PhD is a Senior Physician and the Director of the Bing Center for Waldenstrom’s Macroglobuliemia (WM) at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was the PI for 17 clinical trials which advanced many of the agents currently used to treat WM. By whole-genome sequencing, his laboratory first identified highly recurring MYD88 mutations in WM patients. Translational work in his laboratory showed that BTK was a downstream target of mutated MYD88, enabling a pivotal trial for which he was the PI that led to the first-ever approval of a drug (ibrutinib) and supported the approval and/or development of other BTK-inhibitors for WM. Dr. Treon’s laboratory also identified other critical pro-survival targets related to mutated MYD88 signaling that include IRAK1 and HCK. With the Harvard Medicinal Chemistry Department, he has pursued development of potent and selective inhibitors targeting HCK and IRAK1 for MYD88 mutated lymphomas.

Program Name(s)

Therapy Acceleration Program

Project Title

Targeting mutated MYD88 pro-survival signaling in B-cell malignancies

The George Washington University

Dr. Vichare’s research investigates the impact of health policies on health equity. Her training as primary care physician and health services researcher, and professional experiences shape her research approaches. Her recent studies in collaboration with Dr. Luo and Ms. Erikson utilize Medicaid claims and generate foundational evidence on health workforce in Medicaid. She implements creative analytic approaches, including in her ongoing funded research projects that innovatively link physician race/ethnicity and Medicaid claims. The findings are critical to support policy improvements in health workforce diversity. Dr. Vichare has a solid understanding of Medicaid policies for cancer care. Her publications address salient issues relevant to the oncology specialty workforce, including a national study of radiation oncology workforce. Dr. Vichare developed an NQFendorsed quality measure to address variation in radiation therapy for bone metastasis. Her transdisciplinary research and resulting collaborations have produced notable publications (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1t5tUQmM5aboAj/bibliography/public/). Dr. Vichare has a track record of successfully managing teams, budgets and creating realistic research plans and timelines. Her experience in cancer health policy, familiarity with oncology specialty workforce and research approaches grounded in contemporary health equity frameworks demonstrate her expertise and motivation necessary to lead the proposed project.

Program Name(s)

Equity in Access

Project Title

Addressing Inequities in Access to Care for Patients with Hematologic Malignancy: Understanding the Impact of Telehealth Policies in Medicaid

University of Florida

Jonathan D. Licht, MD, is the Director of the University of Florida Health Cancer Institute, leading it to become the 72nd NCI-designated center in the country. Dr. Licht’s laboratory studies the role of abnormal function of histone methyltransferases and demethylases in malignancies such as multiple myeloma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia and recently described a new class of mutations in histones in cancer. NCI funded for nearly 35 years, Dr. Licht is also Principal Investigator of a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) Specialized Center of Research, now in its 17th year of funding. He is the founding Editor- in-Chief of Blood Neoplasia, a new journal of the American Society of Hematology, and serves on the editorial boards of Cancer Research, Oncogene and Clinical Cancer Research. Dr. Licht was the first chair of the AACR Taskforce on Hematological Malignancies of and currently is Chair of the Medical/Scientific Board of the LLS. Dr. Licht has published more than 230 articles, reviews and book chapters and has mentored over 40 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and 20 faculty members.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Project Title

Epigenetic Mechanisms and Targeting in Hematological Malignancy