Who We Fund

Mayo Clinic, Rochester

Grzegorz (Greg) Nowakowski, M.D., is a consultant and a Professor of Oncology and Medicine, Division of Hematology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester,Minnesota, where he also serves as the Aggressive B-cell Lymphoma Program Director, the Chairman of Education,and an Advanced Hematology Fellowship Program Director. Dr. Nowakowski received his MD from the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland. He completed his internal medicine residency at Yale University Medical School -Norwalk Hospital, Norwalk, Connecticut and his fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Dr Nowakowski joined the Mayo Clinic Lymphoma Group in 2006 as a Mayo Foundation Scholar.Heis an alumnus of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Clinical Research Training Institute and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Leadership Development Program. Dr. Nowakowski’s research focuses on the molecular classification and biology of lymphoproliferative disorders,new approaches to clinical trial design and novel therapies for lymphoma and hematological disorders. Heis an investigator in University of Iowa/Mayo Clinic Lymphoma Specialized Center of Research Excellence program, where he leads career enhancement program. Dr. Nowakowski has authored over 200 articles and numerous book chapters. Dr.Nowakowski serves as a principal investigator of multiple investigator-initiated and cooperative group clinical trials(ECOG, Alliance) and industry studies and serves and a member of ECOG Lymphoma Core Committee. Dr.Nowakowski also chairs the Lymphoma Committee and Hematological Malignancy Program in the Academic and Community Cancer Research United (ACCRU) network. He currently serves as a vice Chair of ASH Clinical Trial Innovation Subcommittee chair of ASCO Research Community Forum and ASCO Clinical Trial Access and Participation Taskforce. Dr. Nowakowski has served as Voting Member of the Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Program Name(s)

IMPACT

Project Title

REACH: Recruitment Expansion through community Access to Clinical trials in Hematologic malignancies

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

University of California, San Diego

Dr. Leslie Crews is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCSD with a passion for stem cell biology and translational cancer research. She received her bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a PhD in Molecular Pathology from UCSD. During her postdoctoral training in leukemia and myeloma research, Dr. Crews and her collaborators discovered that the interferon-responsive RNA editing gene ADAR1 is hyper-activated in myeloma and that this molecule promotes disease progression and drug resistance by activating stem cell regulatory pathways. Since starting her independent laboratory in 2017 as a member of the Division of Regenerative Medicine and the Moores Cancer Center, the primary focus of the Crews Laboratory has been on multiple myeloma translational research. Her ongoing work aims to delve deeper into the molecular mechanisms of myeloma initiation and progression, with the goal of identifying novel, more selective therapies to treat individuals with this incurable cancer.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Inflammation-responsive mechanisms of malignant stem cell generation and eradication in multiple myeloma

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Dr. Shannon Maude is a pediatric oncologist and clinical trialist in the Cancer Immunotherapy Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Maude received her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed her residency in pediatrics as well as fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Maude developed the Cancer Immunotherapy and BMT Fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and currently serves as a Medical Director in the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Maude is a member of the Children’s Oncology Group ALL committee and leads investigator-initiated and international multi-center clinical trials of engineered T cell therapies for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Improving CAR T-cell Therapy Efficacy in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia by Optimizing Design and Placement

Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute

Dr. Melnick is a recognized leader in the fields of hematologic malignancies and cancer epigenetics. Among his major contributions are the first large-scale epigenomic studies in humans, which demonstrated that aberrant epigenetic programming is a hallmark of cancer and that epigenetic diversity is a key determinant of tumor fitness and poor clinical outcomes. These findings led to important mechanistic insights—for example, how mutations in IDH1 and IDH2 disrupt the epigenome through the production of an aberrant oncometabolite, and how mutations in TET2, WT1, IDH1/2, and FLT3 promote leukemogenesis through cooperative epigenetic reprogramming. This was the basis for him receiving the ASH Beutler Award for Outstanding Translational Research in 2020.  Dr. Melnick has played a foundational role in establishing the importance of epigenetic dysfunction in lymphomagenesis, elucidating the mechanistic roles of chromatin modifiers such as EZH2, CREBBP, EP300, KDM1A, KMT2D, HIST1H1, BTG1, ARID1A, TBL1XR1, and TET2. He has also pioneered studies on nuclear topology and its role in regulating the humoral immune response and the malignant transformation of B cells. In the therapeutic arena, Dr. Melnick has developed novel targeted therapies against key lymphoma oncoproteins such as BCL6, SIRT3, and MALT1, and has helped define the rationale for additional targets, including EZH2. Several of these therapeutic approaches have received FDA approval or progressed to phase III clinical trials. He has authored more than 350 scientific publications, held numerous national leadership roles, organized prominent scientific conferences, and devoted extensive effort to mentoring trainees and junior faculty—many of whom now lead distinguished careers in basic and translational research. Dr. Melnick serves on the Board of Directors of both the Blood Cancer United and the Lymphoma Research Foundation. He also has extensive experience initiating and leading multi-center and international research consortia, and is currently the Principal Investigator of several program grants, including two active Blood Cancer United SCOR and RAFL programmatic grants.  He recently took on the position of the Josep Carreras Institute in Barcelona, a unique, free-standing institute focused exclusively on Blood Cancer research, leveraging a diverse and highly accomplished team of cutting-edge basic, translational and clinical scientists. With expertise in many disciplines including epigenetics, immunology, stem cell biology, metabolism, genetics, cell biology and many others, the team integrates artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art preclinical facilities to lead the world in curing Blood Cancers.  The institute is located in Barcelona, which has become one of the top hotspots for biomedicine and biotech in Europe.

Program Name(s)

Research Accelerator for Follicular Lymphoma

Project Title

The ERADICATE follicular lymphoma consortium: accelerating improved outcomes for FL patients

The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research

My lab focuses on the tumor microenvironment as a risk factor for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and Richter's transformation (RT). We develop therapeutic strategies targeting the interaction between CLL/RT and the TME. This research has been my focus since my postdoctoral studies, where I investigated auto-antigens in the TCL-1 mouse model and expanded this work in TCL-1/IgK-AID double transgenic mice that develop RT spontaneously. I've also created preclinical CLL patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models, including SRG-BA6 mice, which allow for the study of human lymph node fibroblastic stromal cells. Recently, I’ve gained expertise in single nucleus RNA sequencing, multiplex imaging, and using PDX models to develop novel therapies like R110-CART for CLL and RT. My lab is committed to interdisciplinary studies with therapeutic implications, and I have extensive experience in project management and collaboration, positioning me well to advance this research.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Targeting TLR9 Signaling to restore immunomodulating function of FRCs in Richter's Transformation

University of Southern California

Dr. Sheng Li is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Translational Genomics, at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California (USC). She is the Program Co-Leader of Epigenetic Regulation in Cancer (ERC) at the USC NCI-designated Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Li received her PhD in Computational Biology from Cornell University in 2014, where she focused on the epigenome dynamics of leukemia relapse. Following her PhD, she served as an Instructor of Bioinformatics at Weill Cornell Medicine. In 2016, Dr. Li joined the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2022.

In 2024, her lab transitioned to the USC Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Li leads a research program centered on understanding the impact of somatic mutations and aging on blood cancer initiation by identifying critical epigenetic aberrations that disrupt gene expression regulating hematopoiesis. Her work leverages multi-omics and integrative data mining to study how age-related inflammation shapes the evolutionary trajectories of mutant hematopoietic stem cells in leukemogenesis. The long-term goal of her research is to identify novel therapeutics to mitigate leukemogenesis and extend human health span and life span. Dr. Li recevied NextGen Star Award from American Association for Cancer Research and Maximizing Investigators' Research Award from NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Epigenetic heterogeneity in age-related clonal hematopoiesis and acute myeloid leukemia

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Dr. John Crispino is Chief of the Division of Experimental Hematology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He received his PhD from MIT for research on the mechanisms of RNA splicing performed in the laboratory of Dr. Phillip Sharp and then performed post-doctoral hematology research at Harvard Medical School with Dr. Stuart Orkin. Dr. Crispino and members of his laboratory have made many important contributions to improve our understanding of the mechanisms of normal and aberrant blood development. Currently, his research is focused on the role of GATA1 in blood cell development, mechanisms of leukemogenesis in children with Down syndrome and the characterization of genetic changes that drive malignant progression of MDS and MPN. He has authored over 170 manuscripts, with recent papers in Cancer Discovery, Journal of Clinical Investigation, and Blood. Dr. Crispino is a recent Associate Editor of Blood, on the editorial boards of Leukemia and Blood Cancer Journal and past chair of an NIH study section.

Program Name(s)

Special Grants

Specialized Center of Research Program

Project Title

Aberrant Megakaryopoiesis in the MPNs

Understanding Leukemia in Children with Down Syndrome to Develop Better Therapies

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

I (Reshmi Parameswaran) am a scientist working in the field of cancer immunotherapy for past 22 years. I received my Ph.D degree from Weizmann Institute of Israel in cell biology and then did postdoctoral training at Children's Hospital Los Angeles working on understanding the drug resistance mechanism of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Later I moved to Case Western University and my laboratory is focusing on developing new immunotherapies for liquid and solid cancers. We generated a new BAFF ligand based CAR-T therapy to treat B cell cancers and this entered into three clinical trials for treating lymphoma, multiple myeloma and autoimmune lupus. All are currently in phase-1 clinical trials. I have published about 25 articles on cancer immunotherapy and received multiple research grants to develop new immunotherapy strategies for cancer. I am committed to find the reason why HCLv patients fail chemotherapy and to develop a new therapy to sensitize these patients to standard chemotherapy.

Program Name(s)

Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Initiative

Project Title

Understanding the drug resistance mechanism and developing new therapeutic strategies for Hairy Cell Leukemia variant

TAP Partner

Vittoria Biotherapeutics is developing novel CAR-T cell therapies that transcend the limitations of current cell therapies. Based on technology exclusively licensed from the University of Pennsylvania, Vittoria's proprietary Senza5 platform unlocks the antitumor potential of engineered T cells and utilizes a five-day manufacturing process to maximize stemness, durability, and target cell cytotoxicity. By acting on the fundamental biology of T cells, Senza5 can be used to improve the efficacy of engineered T cell therapies with pipeline applications in oncology and autoimmune diseases.

Program Name(s)

Therapy Acceleration Program

Project Title

A phase 1 study of VIPER-101, a CD5-edited dual population chimeric antigen receptor cell therapy, to enhance immunotherapy against T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Dr. Konopleva is a Director of the Acute Leukemia Program and a Co-Director of the Translational Blood Cancer Institute at Einstein/Montefiore Cancer Center, NY. The PI is a physician-scientist with an active clinical practice where she treats MDS/AML patients on a routine basis outpatient and inpatient. She directs laboratory studying at understanding the pathogenesis and chemoresistance of AML and MDS stem/progenitor cells, with focus on metabolic and apoptosis regulators. Dr. Konopleva has joined Montefiore-Einstein in summer 2022 after long successful career as a physician-scientist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. She has brought multiple targeted agents from pre-clinical investigations into clinical trials, most notable BCL-2 inhibitor Venetoclax which in combination with low-intensity therapies has become a standard of care for older AML patients unfit for intensive chemotherapy and is being studied in high-risk MDS.

Program Name(s)

Discovery

Project Title

Targeting metabolic reprogramming in MDS and AML stem/progenitor cells

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Dr. Walter’s research focuses on AML. He is particularly interested in improving antibody-based therapies by optimizing existing therapeutics and through the development of novel antigen-directed therapies. As examples of the latter, his lab has helped with candidate drug identification and characterization of 5 agents that have subsequently advanced to clinical testing. A major area of focus of his research lies in the delineation of the mechanisms of action and resistance that are relevant for antibody-based AML therapeutics and the rational development of combination therapies that can overcome drug resistance. Many of his studies conducted over the last 20 years have aimed at optimizing CD33- and, more recently, CD123-targeted therapies. In clinical studies, Dr. Walter conducts trials testing novel treatments and innovative care approaches for AML patients. Furthermore, he uses large datasets to develop and improve diagnostic and prognostic tools for people with AML.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

211Astatine-CD123 Radioimmunotherapy for Cancer (Stem) Cell-Directed Treatment of Acute Leukemia