Who We Fund

Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois

Caroline Arber obtained her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Basel, Switzerland, and specialized in Internal Medicine and Hematology, with a focus on hematologic malignancies and stem cell transplant. To dive into the T cell engineering field, she moved to the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, USA, where she was a research fellow (2010-2014) and an Assistant Professor (2014-2017). Since 2017 she is an Associate Professor, Research Group leader and Attending Physician at the Lausanne University Hospital, University of Lausanne and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Lausanne, Switzerland. She leads a translational research group investigating novel T cell engineering strategies for hematologic malignancies. She also studies the impact of the bone marrow immune microenvironment on outcomes of CAR T cell therapies in myeloma. She has published several last author papers in journals such as Blood, JITC, Cancer Immunology Research, Science Advances.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Designed biosensor to enhance CAR T cell therapy for multiple myeloma

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

I am an Associate Professor of Medicine (Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation) at Fred Hutch with clinical trial and computational expertise. I have a broad background with a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation combined with computational sciences training, including a PhD in evolutionary models of aging and a KL2 career development award focused on microbiome bioinformatics. I leverage my clinical and computational expertise to make cancer treatment safer by improving supportive care. I characterize microbiota disruptions in patients with cancer, investigate their clinical significance, and test microbiota restorative therapeutics to improve clinical outcomes. Recently, I led the largest clinical trial of FMT in allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients to date. We used findings from this trial to design the proposed randomized placebo-controlled phase 2 trial of third-party FMT to prevent aGVHD after transplantation.

Program Name(s)

Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)

Project Title

Fecal microbiota transplantation to prevent acute GVHD after allogeneic stem cell transplantation

The University of Melbourne

Dr. Lev Kats is head of the Targeted Therapeutics Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. He completed his PhD at Monash University and postdoctoral training at Beth Israel Deaconess Centre/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kats has made major contributions in the areas of targeted therapies, epigenetics and hematological malignancies including through discovery of important functions of cancer promoting genes and the characterization of the molecular mechanisms of anti-leukemic drugs. His laboratory uses model systems, functional and molecular genomics approaches to develop and test new therapeutic strategies for aggressive blood cancers.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Targeting DCAF1 as a novel treatment strategy for therapy resistant multiple myeloma

University of Miami

Dr Walker is currently at the University of Miami where is a research Professor in the Division of Myeloma and is also the SWOG Myeloma Committee Chair of Translational Medicine. Most of his work has revolved around utilizing primary patient material with a range of techniques including gene expression and mapping arrays to next generation sequencing technologies to identify the genetic determinants that can be used to sub-classify myeloma. These determinants include common copy number abnormalities, somatic mutations and gene expression profiles which can be used to risk stratify patients according to biological criteria, which in turn can determine the prognosis of the patient. His lab currently employs single-cell technologies, mouse models, and epigenomics to determine the impact and mechanism of action of these abnormalities that drive myeloma pathogenesis.

Program Name(s)

Discovery

Project Title

Genomic and epigenomic interactions of complex structural variants affecting outcome in multiple myeloma

Columbia University Medical Center

I’m a Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Multiple Myeloma and Amyloidosis Program at Columbia University. I received my medical and doctorate degrees from Humboldt University. My postdoctoral training included residency and fellowship at Humboldt University and a research fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Before joining the faculty at Columbia University, I was the Director of the Multiple Myeloma Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

I’m an active translational researcher, serving as principal investigator for many clinical trials, including investigator-initiated studies for multiple myeloma and AL amyloidosis. My translational research focuses on the identification of novel targets for the treatment of multiple myeloma, myeloma bone disease, and amyloidosis. My research is funded by multiple RO1s and awards. As a frequent lecturer, I regularly present at annual meetings of the ASH and ASCO. I have also published over 100 original articles, editorials, chapters in such prestigious journals as JCO, JCI, Blood, and Cancer Research, etc

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Targeting the MMP-13/PD-1H signaling axis for multiple myeloma bone disease and immunosuppression

The University of Texas at Austin

William Matsui is a Professor of Oncology, Director of the Hematologic Malignancy Program, Associate Chair of Research, and the Deputy Director of the LiveSTRONG Cancer Institutes at the Dell Medical School and the University of Texas at Austin. He also serves as the interim Vice Dean of Research for Dell Med. Dr. Matsui's research has focused on understanding the intersection between cancer, stem cell, and developmental biology. His laboratory first identified unique populations of cancer cells with stem cell properties in multiple myeloma and found that several pathways regulating normal stem cells, including those involved in embryonic development, are abnormally activated in cancer stem cells. Importantly, these basic research studies have simultaneously been translationally relevant and served as the basis for over a dozen novel clinical trials.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Stem cell features and Notch signaling in p53 deleted multiple myeloma

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dr. Qi is a well-trained synthetic chemist, chemical biologist, and biologist with an interdisciplinary background in drug development. His research is focused on designing and developing biologically relevant small molecule inhibitors and degraders of epigenetic protein targets and utilizing these chemical tools to study the translational potential of these targets in cancers, including blood cancer.

Dr. Ken Anderson is well-known physician scientist who studies and treats MM. His research has led to a variety of novel therapies for clinical MM treatment.

Together, this team has brought multiple targets into potential treatment development for MM, including HDACs, KDMs, and RPN13. The complementary expertise between these two PIs will uncover novel biological insights into MM that can bring novel therapies into other hematological malignancies.

Program Name(s)

Discovery

Project Title

Dissect the function of histone demethylase KDM5 on overcoming drug resistance toward immunotherapy in multiple myeloma

Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope

Dr. Wong is an applied biostatistician with over 30 years of experience in cancer survivorship research and more recently in comparative- and cost-effectiveness studies. Since 2006, she has been part of the Long-Term Follow-Up Program at City of Hope which follows over 10,000 patients who received hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) there. She has analyzed and published results on the relationships between patient/disease characteristics and treatment exposures on outcomes (survival, complications, quality of life) in HCT survivors. She was the principal statistician in a study that examined racial difference in adherence to a 2-year daily oral maintenance therapy in children and adolescents treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and whether this variation could explain racial differences in outcomes. Dr. Wong’s expertise extends to health services research. She examined the outcomes and cost-effectiveness of lifelong echocardiographic screening, recommended by the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Guidelines, for early detection of asymptomatic heart failure in at-risk childhood cancer survivors. The study results helped revise the current COG Guidelines. She has been conducting a cost-effectiveness study of the COG Guidelines recommendation for breast cancer screening in chest-irradiated female Hodgkin Lymphoma survivors. Two manuscripts are in preparation. The findings will provide important information to help refine the COG Guidelines.

Program Name(s)

Equity in Access

Project Title

Role of Health Insurance and Medicaid Expansion in Racial Inequity in Patterns of Care and Outcomes in Multiple Myeloma

Columbia University Medical Center

I’m a Research Scientist at Columbia University Multiple Myeloma Program. I have over 20 years of research experience, especially with profound expertise in pharmaceutical biochemistry and drug development in multiple myeloma. I received my Ph.D. degree in Pharmacology and Chemistry of Peptides in 2005. After that, I did my postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and have focused on multiple myeloma drug development since then. My current research aims to identify the druggable targets and develop therapeutic approaches for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma-carrying RAS mutation. My work has been awarded by the International Myeloma Foundation Brian D. Novis Research Grant, the International Myeloma Society, and the Paula and Rodger Riney Foundation Translational Research Award. My research has also resulted in over 18 peer-reviewed articles in top journals such as JCI, Blood, and Leukemia.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Targeting GCK as a novel and selective therapeutic strategy against RAS mutated Multiple Myeloma

Emory University

Dr Madhav Dhodapkar is the director of Winship Center for Cancer Immunology, Anise McDaniel Brock Chair, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Cancer Innovation and Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology in the Emory School of Medicine. He also co-leads the cancer immunology program at Winship Cancer Institute. Prior to moving to Emory in 2018, Dhodapkar served as chief of hematology, the Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Medicine (Hematology), and professor of immunobiology at Yale University School of Medicine. An expert in cancer immunology, he also was co-director of the Cancer Immunology Program within the Yale Cancer Center. Dr Dhodapkar’s research focuses on how the immune system regulates the progression from precursor lesions to cancer as well as immune-biology of cancer microenvironment. He is a prior recipient of several awards including the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award and the NCI Outstanding Investigator Award.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Project Title

Improving targeted adoptive cell therapy of myeloma

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Dr. Simona Colla is an associate professor in the Department of Leukemia at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her laboratory works on understanding the mechanisms underpinning the pathogenesis and progression of multiple myeloma (MM) and myelodysplastic syndromes.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Validation of Critical 1q21 Vulnerabilities in multiple myeloma

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dr. Carrasco earned his MD and PhD degrees at the University of Chile. Motivated by his desire to practice medicine at the highest level, he immigrated to the USA and pursued a residency in anatomic pathology at the Massachusetts General Hospital followed by a fellowship in hematopathology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In recognition to his research accomplishments in the field of multiple myeloma (MM) during his postdoctoral training he was recruited to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to develop an independent laboratory research program in MM. Dr. Carrasco is current Professor in Pathology at Harvard Medical School. His principal area of excellence is laboratory and clinical investigation focusing on understanding the roles of the Wnt/b-catenin signaling pathway in MM pathogenesis, with the threefold intent of (i) identifying novel therapeutic targets, (ii) developing novel targeted therapies, and (iii) developing animal models for preclinical and clinical intervention.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Developing selective inhibitors of the b-catenin/BCL9 transcriptional complex for myeloma therapy