Who We Fund

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Dr. Will has been a group leader at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine since 2016. She obtained her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of Freiburg, Germany and underwent further training in hematology/oncology with Dr. Ulrich Steidl. With a passion for and through the lens of stem cell biology, Britta’s laboratory seeks to discover novel therapeutic options for patients with myeloid malignancies. Current research concentrates on two largely uncharted territories in blood stem cell aging and leukemic stem cell maintenance - iron homeostasis and highly selective autophagy. Dr. Will also serves as co-leader of the Stem Cell and Cancer Biology Program and directs the Cancer Stem Cell Pharmacodynamics Unit at the NCI-designated Montefiore-Einstein Cancer Center. She is the recipient of prestigious young investigator awards, including from the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance, Gilead, AAMDSIF, Feldstein Medical Foundation, and the Leukemia Research Foundation.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Therapeutically actionable molecular safeguards in leukemic stem cells

Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network

Tak W. Mak is an international leader in cancer and immunology research. He is best known for his cloning of the human T cell receptor in 1984, which led to the CAR-T therapies now approved for leukemias/lymphomas. His lab also generated numerous genetically modified mouse strains to identify key factors in immune disorders and cancers. His group’s demonstration that CTLA4 negatively regulates T cell activation paved the way for checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. Most recently, his team showed that T and B cells produce acetylcholine in a manner influencing tumorigenesis and autoimmunity. On the biotech front, Dr. Mak co-founded Agios Pharmaceuticals, which produced two IDH inhibitors that are now FDA-approved for treatment of AML. The Mak team has also developed two novel agents targeting aneuploid cancer cells. These agents have shown promise in phase 2 clinical trials. Dr. Mak has published >950 papers, holds 20 patents, and has received over 35 national and international awards.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Project Title

The Immune Niche in the Development of Hematological Malignancies and Implications for Novel Therapy

University of Miami

Dr. Nimer has cared for patients with MDS, AML, multiple myeloma, and lymphoma for over three decades. This melding of clinical studies and care, with both basic laboratory and translational studies, reflects the fundamental focus of his career. Since coming to the University of Miami-Miller School of Medicine in 2012 and assuming the Directorship of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, the center received the prestigious National Cancer Institute designation in July 2019. In November 2019, Dr. Nimer was named the inaugural Oscar de la Renta Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. He has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigators and the Association of American Physicians. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and serves on the editorial board of several medical journals. In April 2021, Dr. Nimer was inducted into the Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine of Florida. Dr. Nimer is also the Chairman of the Myelodysplastic Syndrome Foundation, and the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of Gabrielle's Angel Foundation for Cancer Research.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Interventional Epigenetics in Myeloid Malignancies

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Dr. Falchi graduated Cum Laude from the University of Perugia, Italy. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center, residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center. He is currently an Assistant Attending in the Lymphoma and Cellular Therapy Services at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Falchi’s research focuses on the use of immunotherapy to treat B-cell NHL. He leads multiple such trials nationally and internationally. He authored or co-authored over 75 articles published in peer-reviewed journals, numerous abstracts, and several book chapters. 

Dr. Falchi is Co-Editor-In-Chief of Oncoimmunology, Editorial Board Member for Blood Advances, and recurrent peer-reviewer for high-profile journals. He is recipient of several awards, including a Lymphoma Research Foundation Career Development Award. He is an active member of several scientific societies, including the American Society of Hematology.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Leveraging multispecific antibodies to reshape the treatment landscape of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma

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

Children's Research Institute

Michael Keller, M.D., is a pediatric immunologist at Children's National Hospital and specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of primary and secondary immunodeficiency disorders. He has authored many peer-reviewed articles and contributed to expert consensus guidelines on the treatment and diagnosis of primary immunodeficiency disorders. Dr. Keller is a member of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI); the Clinical Immunology Society; the European Society of Immunodeficiency; and the Primary Immunodeficiency Treatment Consortium (PIDTC).  Dr. Keller's research focuses on the use of adoptive T-cell therapies for treatment of infections in immunocompromised patients, including the use of this therapy to improve outcomes in children with primary immunodeficiency disorders as well as those undergoing bone marrow transplantation for cancer. 

He is the primary investigator of several Phase I-II studies of virus-specific T-cell immunotherapy. Dr. Keller lives in Maryland with his wife and two sons; and enjoys travel, hiking, and martial arts.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

T-cell immunotherapy for prevention of COVID-19 following bone marrow transplantation

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

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

Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network

Dr. Courtney Jones received her PhD from New York University in 2014 and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado. Throughout her training, Courtney’s research focused on understanding and targeting acute leukemia cells. She is currently a Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. The goal of Dr. Jones’s research is to discovery new ways to target leukemia cells with the overall goal of improving outcomes for patients with leukemia while minimizing side effects. To date, her largest contribution to blood cancer research was the discovery of metabolic vulnerabilities of leukemia cells that have been translated into clinical trials in collaboration with her clinical colleagues. The objective of her current research studies is to discover and develop a new strategy to eradicate leukemia cells in patients for whom standard chemotherapy has failed.

Program Name(s)

Discovery

Project Title

Interrogation of glutathione biology in relapsed acute myeloid leukemia stem cells

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

I am an Assistant Professor at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. My areas of research interest include drug development and signaling with focus on small GTPases. My research is both basic and translational.

My research efforts encompass several methodologies, including structural biology, biophysical and biochemical studies, cellular functional assays, and ultimately, identifying small molecule compounds that bind to and modulate GTPase signaling in in vivo pre-clinical models of cancer.

RAC GTPases are key regulators of cell growth. By reorganizing the actin cytoskeleton, RAC plays a key role in cancer cell metastasis. It is also involved in mechanisms of resistance to therapies. My lab's goal is to inhibit RAC in leukemia by understanding the molecular mechanisms driving its hyperactivity.

One of my lab’s groundbreaking discoveries is the identification of a small molecule inhibitor of VAV3, a RAC activator. Current research studies the efficacy of VAV3 inhibition in models of relapsed/recurrent leukemia.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Overcoming RAS-driven Mechanisms of Resistance in Leukemia

Maine Medical Center

Dr. Michaela Reagan is a Faculty Scientist II at the MaineHealth Institute for Research and an Associate Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. She received her B.S. in general Engineering from Harvey Mudd College (2006) and Ph.D. from Tufts University in Biomedical Engineering in the field of breast cancer bone metastasis (2011). She then performed her post-doctoral research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Irene Ghobrial (2011-2015). Dr. Reagan is a member of the Finance Committee of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) and is the past chair of the ASBMR’s Women’s Committee. Since 2015, she has led innovative, transdisciplinary, basic and translational research in the Reagan Laboratory at MaineHealth with the goal of identifying cancer vulnerabilities that can lead to new treatments or cures for multiple myeloma (MM) patients. Her unique research is focused on the interactions between obesity, adipocytes and myeloma cells.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Multiple Myeloma Support from the Microenvironment: Bone Marrow Adipocytes and the Fatty Acid Binding Proteins

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

I graduated from Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons, where I stayed for Internal Medicine residency training/chief residency before moving to Boston for fellowship training in hematology/oncology at Dana-Farber/Mass General Cancer Center. I stayed on as faculty in the lymphoma program at Dana-Farber and am now an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  My research interests are in the clinical and translational study of immunotherapies for lymphoma, with a particular interest in cellular immunotherapies. I also serve as the Medical Director of the Immune Effector Cell Therapy program at Dana-Farber, which houses our commercial and research cell therapy programs across the Institute.  I am the principal investigator of industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated clinical trials involving cellular therapies for lymphoma, and lead retrospective and translational studies to identify mechanisms of response and resistance to these therapies.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

CAR T-cell therapy in central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma: a study in safety and efficacy and a model in which to study mechanisms of neurotoxicity