Adi Nagler
Bronchiolitis obliterans after transplant
Adi Nagler, PhD
Boston, MA
United States
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dr. Adi Nagler received her Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2021, under the mentorship of Prof. Yardena Samuels. There, she spearheaded studies that identified intra-tumoral intracellular bacterial peptides eliciting an immune response by melanoma-infiltrating lymphocytes, suggesting a novel source of antigens within tumors (Kalaora & Nagler Nature 2021). As a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Catherine Wu’s lab, she is studying the impact of the microbiome on T cell response in bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). She is applying spatial transcriptomics methodology together with characterization of the immunopeptidome of BOS tissue specimens to define the role of bacterial presented peptides in the pathogenesis of this devastating complication of HCT. Overall, her studies aim is to explore the potential link between T cell antigen specificity to these microbial peptides and initiation and propagation of BOS.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Project Title
Wendy Stock
T-cell ALL
Wendy Stock, MD
Chicago, IL
United States
University of Chicago
Dr. Stock is the Anjuli Seth Nayak Professor of Leukemia Research at the University of Chicago. She is the co-chair of the Leukemia Committee for the Alliance, the NCI National Clinical Trials Cooperative Group that leads practice-changing clinical trials in cancer. Dr. Stock's career has focused on clinical/translational research in acute leukemias, with a particular focus on acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Her work has led to a paradigm shift in treatment of younger adults with ALL, translating preclinical insights from her laboratory studies on mechanisms of treatment resistance. She is the co-chair of the Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics Program at the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Stock serves on the editorial board of Blood Advances and has published more than 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts. She was recently elected to a 4-year term as the Councilor for the American Society of Hematology.
Program Name(s)
Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)
Project Title
A phase 1b/2 study targeting apoptotic and signaling pathways in T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Helen Parsons
Equity in Access
Helen Parsons, PhD
Minneapolis, MN
United States
University of Minnesota
Helen Parsons, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. She has expertise in mixed-methods research, employing a combination of clinical registries, administrative data (e.g., Medicare), surveys and focus groups to understand how adoption of new programs and policies influence reimbursement and health outcomes, including the development and use of survey and administrative data to examine longitudinal health and psychosocial outcomes.
Program Name(s)
Equity in Access
Project Title
Martin Carroll, MD
Philadelphia, PA
United States
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Carroll is a physician scientist who has been studying leukemia biology for 3 decades. Until recently Dr. Carroll saw patients with blood cancers at the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Hospital but is now focused solely on research to improve therapy for AML. He has performed that research at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania since 1998. Dr. Carroll has had a long term commitment to building tools to enhance the understanding of human AML. These tools have included development of a large tissue bank of patient samples. He has also lead the field in development and application of the study of AML in immunocompromised mice. His work in xenograft AML models lead to the characterization of chemotherapy resistance as not always being dependent on leukemic stem cells but on metabolic adaptations of the cells to chemotherapy. Dr. Carroll has been involved in development of previous novel therapies for AML and continues to focus on developing safer and more effective treatments.
Program Name(s)
Specialized Center of Research Program
Project Title
Catherine Smith
leukemia
Catherine Smith, MD
San Francisco, CA
United States
University of California San Francisco
Dr. Smith is a physician-scientist whose laboratory focuses on therapeutic resistance mechanisms and novel treatment strategies for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). She has a particular interest in AML associated with mutations in Fms-like Tyrosine Kinase-3 (FLT3), which is the most frequently mutated gene in AML and associated with resistance to conventional therapy. She has been involved in the development of multiple active FLT3 inhibitors as a clinical-translational investigator. Dr. Smith was born and raised in San Francisco, California. She attended Yale University where she majored in Chemistry, graduated cum laude, and was awarded the Howard Douglas Moore Prize for excellence in chemistry. She attended medical school at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Smith has been the recipient of numerous career development awards, including a prior Blood Cancer United Special Fellow in Clinical Research Award.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Project Title
David Avigan, MD
Boston, MA
United States
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Dr. Avigan is the Director of Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center; Chief of the Division of Hematology/Hematologic Malignancies, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He leads a large program for translational and clinical investigation in cellular immunotherapy for blood cancers. He has developed a personalized tumor vaccine and conducted a series of clinical trials to define safety, immunologic response and clinical efficacy of vaccination across the country. He has established pre-clinical models studying the immune microenvironment in patients undergoing CAR T and bispecific T cell engager therapy. We have developed transcriptomic platforms to identify biomarkers predictive of response to CAR T cell demonstrating the critical contribution of secondary activation of adaptive immune mechanisms. We led a consortium to study the integration of vaccine and CAR T cell therapy to promote durable CAR T cell persistence and disease regression.
Program Name(s)
Discovery
Project Title
Adam Palmer, PhD
Chapel Hill, NC
United States
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Adam Palmer is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research combines laboratory experiments, data analysis, and computer modeling to understand how combinations of cancer medicines work together, particularly curative treatments for aggressive lymphomas. Dr Palmer has developed computer models that predict the clinical effectiveness of drug combinations from how well the individual drugs work, and is now applying these methods to make combination therapies for blood cancers more effective and tolerable. Previously he completed undergraduate training in biochemistry, chemistry, and physics at the University of Adelaide, Australia, earned his PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard University studying antibiotic resistance, and conducted postdoctoral research on cancer pharmacology at Harvard Medical School.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Project Title
Fabiana Perna, MD, PhD
Tampa, FL
United States
Moffitt Cancer Center
Dr. Fabiana Perna is a physician-scientist who holds a full-time faculty position as Medical Director of the Cell Therapy Facility and Senior Member in the Dept. of BMT and Cellular Immunotherapy at Moffitt.
She completed clinical training as hematologist in Italy and acquired extensive research training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York from 2008 to 2019. She is licensed in Florida and Indiana and serves as an attending physician.
She has published >70 papers on high-impact scientific journals and competed for many awards such as the American Italian Cancer Foundation fellowship, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center clinical fellowship, Translational Research Training in Hematology, ASH Scholar, MSKCC Technology Development Fund, Leukemia Research Foundation. She is the PI of two NIH/NCI grants including a R37 MERIT award.
Her work aims to develop novel CAR T cells for AML (Perna et al., Cancer Cell 2017) and Multiple Myeloma (Di Meo et al., Cancer Cell 2026).
Program Name(s)
Translational Research Program
Project Title
Alternatively spliced cell surface proteins for CAR T cell therapy of Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Rayne Rouce
Immunotherapy for pediatric, adolescent & young adult patients
Rayne Rouce, MD
Houston, TX
United States
Baylor College of Medicine
Dr. Rouce is a pediatric oncologist and physician scientist whose clinical research focuses on difficult-to-treat blood cancers, specifically how to harness the immune system to attack them. She has spent the past 12 years in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Texas Children’s Hospital leading a research program translating genetically engineered immune cells to first-in-human immunotherapy trials. She has significant experience in every aspect of clinical trial development and in addition to serving as principal investigator on CAR-T trials for blood cancers, has served as Project Leader for projects for the NIH Lymphoma SPORE, Blood Cancer United Specialized Center of Research, and Stand Up to Cancer. She leads health equity and disparities initiatives locally and nationally and is dedicated to addressing access barriers to novel cancer clinical trials for children, adolescents/young adults, underrepresented minorities, patients with limited resources and those with geographic constraints.
Program Name(s)
Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)
Project Title
Novel CD7 CAR T-cells for refractory T-cell malignancies affecting pediatric and AYA patients
Gerlinde Wernig, MD
Stanford, CA
United States
Stanford University
Gerlinde Wernig, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Pathology at Stanford University and a world expert on fibrosis and blood cancers. She co-discovered the JAK2 V617F mutation that drives myeloproliferative neoplasms and identified c-JUN as a key regulator of fibrosis across organs. Her laboratory develops advanced models of human fibrotic disease, using patient-derived organoids, xenografts, and mouse systems to uncover how inflammation and cancer signaling reshape tissues. By combining next-generation single-cell and multi-omics approaches, Dr. Wernig’s research identifies new targets to treat fibrosis and bone-marrow failure. As a clinical hematopathologist, she brings deep diagnostic expertise to bridge scientific discovery and patient care.
Program Name(s)
Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Initiative
Project Title
Alexandra Stevens
childhood AML
Alexandra Stevens, MD
Houston, TX
United States
Baylor College of Medicine
I was born in New York City to two hard-working and driven parents who encouraged me to pursue my passions and not back down from a challenge. I determined I loved science in high school and earned a Westinghouse Science Talent Search award for work done on vaccine development. In college, at Duke University, I decided to pursue medical school when a friend had a relapse of her cancer. Medical school and Pediatrics Residency was in NYC at Columbia University and Mount Sinai respectively where my passion for caring for children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was solidified. For Fellowship I moved my family to Texas to pursue pediatric oncology training at Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine and continued on to get my Ph.D. in Clinical Investigation. The resources at TCH/BCM have allowed me to become an outstanding clinician, a recognized educator, and to pursue my goal of improving outcomes for the next generation of children to be diagnosed with AML.
Program Name(s)
Dare to Dream
Project Title
Pediatric AML PDX Models and Drug Testing-Gateway to Novel PedAL Trials
Liling Wan
AML
Liling Wan, PhD
Philadelphia, PA
United States
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Liling Wan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She received a B.S. in Biological Sciences and Biotechnology from Tsinghua University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University. She conducted postdoctoral research at Rockefeller University where she studied chromatin regulators in cancer. The Wan lab studies basic gene regulatory mechanisms and how these mechanisms are dysregulated in cancer, with the goal of harnessing these insights for therapeutics. Her research has revealed how chromatin “reader” proteins impact gene regulation in cancer such as acute myeloid leukemia and led to early drug development efforts targeting these mechanisms. Dr. Wan has been recognized for her innovative and impactful research through numerous awards including AACR NextGen Star, NIH Pathway to Independence Award, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, and was recently named a Pew-Stewart Scholar, V Foundation Scholar, and ASH Scholar.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program