Who We Fund

MD Anderson Cancer Center

Dai Chihara, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. Dr. Chihara received his MD degree from Kobe University in Japan, and completed clinical training in hematology and oncology both in Japan and the US. Dr. Chihara focuses on clinical research of lymphoma for aggressive and indolent B-cell lymphomas, and has led multiple research projects utilizing clinical data and population-based cancer registry data to identify high risk populations with poor outcomes. Dr. Chihara is currently working on discovering novel trial design and biomarkers in lymphoma through investigator initiated clinical trials at MD Anderson Cancer Center to address unmet needs for patients. Dr. Chihara has received many awards including ones from Lymphoma Research Foundation, American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Biomarker and Risk Tailored Treatment to Improve Outcomes in Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Dr. Robert Orlowski, the Principal Investigator of this proposal, serves as the Florence Maude Thomas Cancer Research Professor and Director of the Myeloma Section at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and is the Deputy Chair of the Department of Lymphoma & Myeloma. Also, Dr. Orlowski serves as the Chair of the SWOG Barlogie/Salmon Myeloma Committee, which is part of the National Clinical Trials Network that conducts studies to advance novel therapies for myeloma, and to expand our understanding of its biology. In the laboratory arena, Dr. Orlowski is a physician scientist whose focus has been on bench-to-bedside research that develops and validates novel therapies to improve patient outcomes, and focuses on drug resistance mechanisms that may serve as predictive biomarkers for response. His past work has included leading roles in the development of the proteasome inhibitors bortezomib and carfilzomib, as well as the monoclonal antibodies daratumumab and elotuzumab.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Translational Research Program

Project Title

SCOR in High-Risk Plasma Cell Dyscrasias

Targeting HSP70 to Immune Effector Cells to Overcome the Immune Suppressive Myeloma Microenvironment

TAP Partner

Auron is a platform-powered company targeting cell-state plasticity to improve patient outcomes in oncology and inflammatory disease. Auron uses AI and machine learning to compare cell states and identify novel drug targets, optimal development models, and biomarkers to facilitate proper patient selection, ultimately accelerating the development of effective and durable therapies. 

Program Name(s)

Therapy Acceleration Program

Project Title

A phase 1 study of AUTX-703, a KAT2A/B degrader, in patients with AML or MDS

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

Dr. Marco Ruella is a physician-scientist and assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He treats patients with blood cancers and focuses on using immunotherapy, where the body’s own immune system is harnessed to fight cancer. His research looks at why some cancers return after CAR T-cell therapy and aims to design new treatments to prevent this. Dr. Ruella earned his medical degree in Italy and completed advanced training in the U.S. He has received many awards for his work, including from the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Dr. Ruella has published widely, holds multiple patents, and advises companies in cancer immunotherapy. He also founded viTToria Biotherapeutics to help bring new treatments to patients.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Building Upon The Success Of CART19: Safe and Effective Next-Generation CART For Relapsed And Refractory Lymphomas

β-Hydroxybutyrate To Enhance CAR T Cell Immunotherapy Against Hematological Cancers

Rhode Island Hospital

Adam Olszewski, MD is a hematologist and oncologist specializing in the treatment of lymphomas. He graduated from the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland, and completed his postgraduate training at Roosevelt Hospital (Mount Sinai West) in New York, NY. His is currently Associate Professor of Medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and conducts clinical research for patients with Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas at the Lifespan Cancer Institute at Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI. He is a Research Scholar of the American Cancer Society who has also been supported by awards from the American Society of Hematology, the National Institutes of Health, and the Rhode Island Foundation. Dr. Olszewski has authored over 100 scientific publications. His current research is focused on developing immunotherapies and molecularly targeted approaches for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, as well as genomic correlates of responsiveness to these therapies.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Mosunetuzumab with lenalidomide augmentation as first-line therapy for patients with follicular and marginal zone lymphoma

Yale University

Markus Müschen, MD, PhD, is the Director of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Oncology and the Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Hematology at Yale University. His research focuses on signal transduction and metabolic pathways in lymphoid malignancies, aiming to identify therapeutic strategies to overcome drug resistance in leukemia and lymphoma. After clinical training at the University of Cologne and the Institut Pasteur in Paris, he completed postdoctoral fellowships with Klaus Rajewsky and the late Janet D. Rowley. Before joining Yale, Dr. Müschen led the Hematological Malignancies Program at UCSF. He is a two-time NCI Outstanding Investigator (R35), HHMI Faculty Scholar, and member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. As Chief of the Basic Science Division at Yale Cancer Center, he mentors nine junior faculty and research group leaders and fosters the next generation of cancer researchers.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Rational repurposing effort to disrupt beta-catenin protein degradation in B-cell malignancies

Targeted hyperactivation of oncogenic STAT5-signaling in lymphoid malignancies

Stanford University

Dr. Kathleen Sakamoto is Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine. She has been studying the causes of AML and developing new therapies for the past 30 years. Her research funded by Blood Cancer United currently focuses on repurposing a drug used to treat tapeworms, niclosamide, for children with relapsed/refractory AML. Niclosamide is an FDA approved drug and is well tolerated in children. Dr. Sakamoto’s research has resulted in a Phase I clinical trial that will study toxicity, response in AML cells, and drug levels. She is also studying mechanisms of resistance of AML cells to niclosamide to look for drugs that will act synergistically for future clinical trials. Her goal is to take discoveries in the laboratory and translate them to the clinics to improve the overall survival and quality of life in children with AML.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Niclosamide for the Treatment of Relapsed/Refractory Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Washington University in St. Louis

Dr. Tyler Parsons completed his PhD research at Oakland University and the Beaumont Research Institute in the lab of Dr. Gerard Madlambayan where he published on the role of blood stem cells in tumor response to radiation therapy. During the final year of his PhD, he was diagnosed with a myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) which directed his career focus and passion to furthering the understanding of MPNs and their transformation potential to leukemia. To this end, he joined the lab of Dr. Grant Challen at Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis) where he is investigating clonal evolution in MPNs and the mutational trajectory leading to secondary leukemia. The aim of his post-doctoral fellowship is to describe the clonal architecture of MPN disease progression to leukemia which could lead to early detection and improved disease surveillance. He is passionate about improving outcomes for patients by advancing our understanding of both the biology and disease evolution of MPNs.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Mechanisms of Clonal Evolution in the Transformation of MPN to sAML

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

Van Andel Research Institute

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Epigenetics at Van Andel Institute. My research is focused on epigenetic regulation of gene expression during blood cell formation and in the pathogenesis of blood cancer. I obtained PhD in Biochemistry from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2001 and joined Dr. Joseph Lipsick’s laboratory at Stanford University for my postdoctoral training, where I became interested in blood cancer research. In 2008, I joined MD Anderson Cancer Center as a research track Assistant Professor, where I made seminal discoveries of the ENL protein as a novel histone acetylation reader and an attractive new therapeutic target for acute leukemias. In 2018, I started my independent lab at Van Andel Institute studying epigenetic regulation of gene expression in blood cancers. The overarching goal of my research is to understand and target ENL in acute leukemias. My long-term research goal is to translate our discoveries at bench to help leukemia patients in the clinic.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Investigating and targeting the histone acetylation reader protein ENL in acute leukemias

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

I was an endlessly curious child who wanted to become a scientist. But it was my own experience as a teenager in a Pediatric Hospital Unit that shaped my scientific passion, where I became friends with children affected by leukemia. I was shocked by the terrible implications of this disease and became determined to design new therapies to fight it.

Inspired by this experience, I studied cancer biology at top institutions across Europe and the US. I wanted to understand how leukemia originated, and how it evolved to become an aggressive and hard-to-treat disease. 

As a PhD student at the University of Oxford, I developed new sequencing technologies to understand how leukemia arises and evolves inside each individual cell. My deep passion for leukemia research later brought me to Dana Farber Cancer Institute, where I am currently studying the earliest molecular changes that predispose to leukemia, aiming to prevent leukemia from developing in the first place.

Project Title

Characterizing the epigenetic mechanisms of inflammation-mediated fitness advantage in clonal hematopoiesis