Who We Fund

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Constantine Mitsiades MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Harvard Medical School, an Associate member of the Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, and holds the "Shawna Ashlee Corman" Investigatorship in Multiple Myeloma at DFCI. His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms through which myeloma and other blood cancers interact with the bone marrow microenvironment and develop resistance to existing or investigational drugs or immune therapies, and how to target therapeutically those resistance mechanisms. His studies established that inhibition of BET bromodomain proteins blocks the critical oncoprotein c-Myc. His research also informed the design of several regimens which are now FDA-approved, represent a standard-of-care for MM treatment, and have become a "backbone" for combination with other novel agents, e.g., monoclonal antibodies. Several of these regimens contributed to the increased overall survival of MM patients in the last decade.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Pharmacological strategies to enhance T- and NK-cell-based therapies in blood cancers

University of Iceland

Professor Sigurður Yngvi Kristinsson is currently consolidating his position as one of the leading researchers world-wide in the field of multiple myeloma, its precursors, its epidemiology, progression, and treatment. This has been the main thrust of his scientific and clinical efforts from the time he defended his thesis on monoclonal gammopathies at the Karolinska Institutet in 2009. In 2012 he became the youngest full professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Iceland and he is a consultant at Landspitali University Hospital. He designed and leads the largest myeloma screening study in the world, the iStopMM project in which over 80,000 individuals provided informed consent. His current research group includes 7 PhD-students, three postdocs, a lab with 4 biologists, 6 research nurses, three statisticians/data manager, and five support staff. He is an author of more than 110 scientific papers including the current guidelines for myeloma treatment and follow up and has an h-index of 57.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Early Detection and Intervention in Smoldering Multiple Myeloma: population-based screening and treatment; Edit-SMM

Institute of Biomedical Research from Salamanca

Noemi Puig, MD, PhD earned her medical degree from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid and she completed her residency in Internal Medicine and Hematology at the University Hospital La Fe in Valencia, Spain. She completed a 3-year fellowship in Lymphoma, Myeloma and Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation at the Princess Margaret Hospital in the University of Toronto, in Toronto, Canada. She earned a doctoral degree at the Medicine Department of the University of Salamanca, in Spain, with a thesis entitled “Optimization and Critical Analysis of Minimal Residual Disease Monitoring with ASO RQ-PCR in Patients with Multiple Myeloma and Comparison with Multiparameter Flow Cytometry”. Dr. Puig currently serves as a Consultant Physician at the Hematology Department in the University Hospital of Salamanca. She also works in the Flow Cytometry Laboratory of the University Hospital of Salamanca, where she is responsible for the studies developed by the Spanish Myeloma Group.

Dr. Puig is a member of the Programa para el Estudio de la Terapéutica en Hemopatías Malignas (PETHEMA) and the Spanish Myeloma Group (GEM) as well as of the EuroFlow Group.

Dr. Puig´s main research interests include the role of multiparameter flow cytometry and of mass spectrometry in diagnosis, risk stratification and minimal residual disease monitoring in patients with monoclonal gammopathies. She is an author or co-author in several research articles, reviews and book chapters.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Peripheral blood-based disease monitoring by mass spectrometry in patients with multiple myeloma

The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Medical Center

Dr. June is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and is currently Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Perelman School of Medicine, and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. In 2011, his research team published findings detailing a new therapy in which patients with refractory and relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia were treated with genetically engineered versions of their own T cells, CAR-Ts. CTL019, the CAR T cell developed in the June laboratory was the first cell and gene therapy to be approved by the US FDA. He has published more than 500 manuscripts and is the recipient of numerous honors, including a lifetime achievement award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Project Title

Pan-heme CAR: Anti-CD38 CAR T cells for myeloid, lymphoid and plasma cell malignancies

Universidad de Navarra

Dr Bruno Paiva, PharmD, PhD, is a research fellow of the Departments of Haematology and Immunology at the Clinica Universidad de Navarra and CIMA, Pamplona, Spain. He is also the Director of the Flow Cytometry Core of the University of Navarra.   Dr Paiva’s main area of expertise is the multidimensional flow cytometry analysis of haematological malignancies. His research focuses on immunogenomics to improve differential diagnosis, risk stratification, and monitoring of patients with monoclonal gammopathies and myeloid malignancies. He is an author or co-author of hundreds of publications in peer-reviewed journals, and has been recognized with numerous awards.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Systematic multiomic profiling of tumor and immune cells for non invasive detection of early myeloma

The University of Melbourne

I am an Assoc. Prof. and Group Leader at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac; Melbourne, Australia). I formed my group in 2018 and my research program is focused upon enhancing the effectiveness of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, a form of immune therapy where a patient’s own immune cells are genetically engineered to recognize and kill tumor cells. I have published numerous seminal papers and research metrics place me in the top 1% of researchers in my field. Despite being a PI for just 5 years, I have already led 1 CAR T clinical trial and I am currently developing a second trial with a technology developed in my lab in 2020.

Previously my focus has been on using CAR T to treat cancers such as breast and lung cancer. However, recent clinical data indicates that CAR T cells have significant potential in multiple myeloma. Therefore, this project will be a key strategic enabler, allowing me to apply approaches developed in my lab to this disease.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Exploiting escape from Y-inactivation as a synthetic dependency in MYC-driven lymphoma

Weill Cornell Medicine

John P. Leonard, MD, is the Richard T. Silver Distinguished Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology and Senior Associate Dean for Innovation and Initiatives at Weill Cornell Medicine. He is Executive Vice Chairman of the Weill Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.  Dr. Leonard’s research has been published in numerous medical journals, and he has served as a member of the editorial boards of Blood and the Journal of Clinical Oncology, leading international journals in these fields. He is Chair of the Lymphoma Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a multicenter cooperative group and key component of the National Cancer Institute’s National Clinical Trials Network. Dr. Leonard’s primary research interest is in the development of novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of lymphoma and related hematologic malignancies, and he has lectured at major international meetings on these topics. He also has studied prognostic, imaging and survivorship issues for lymphoma patients.

Program Name(s)

IMPACT

Project Title

BRIDGE (Blood cancer Research Initiative Developing Greater Engagement) with community patients

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Fenghuang (Frank) Zhan, MD & PhD, is a Professor of Medicine and the Research Director of Myeloma Center at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Frank’s research focuses on identifying treatment approaches to overcome drug resistance in multiple myeloma (MM) by using genomic, genetic, and immunological tools from a very large database of clinical samples and mouse models. Frank has published more than 170 peer reviewed papers. Many of his publications appeared in prestigious journals such as Science, NEJM, Cancer Cell, Blood, and J Clin Invest. As a principal investigator (PI), he has received many grants from the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), Leukemia Lymphoma Society (LLS) and NIH-NCI, etc. Frank received his PhD in Cancer Molecular Genetics and was then trained as a postdoctoral fellow and junior faculty at UAMS. Prior he returned to UAMS, he was an Associate Professor in the University of Utah, and then a Professor in the University of Iowa.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Toward improvement of BCMA/CST6-CAR-T therapy to target both myeloma cells and bone resorption

Fondazione Centro San Raffaele

Dr. Matteo Bellone obtained an M.D. degree (with honors) and was Board Certified in Allergology and Clinical Immunology at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. He had a 3-year post-doctoral training at the University of Minnesota working on autoimmunity with Bianca Conti-Fine. Since the early nineties he has been investigating interactions between cancer and immune cells with discoveries leading to several clinical outputs. He is Head of the Cellular Immunology Unit at Ospedale San Raffaele (Milan, Italy), where he also practices as Clinical Immunologist. He is adjunct professor of Immunology at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Associate Editor at Frontiers in Immunology and Frontiers in Oncology, and member of several boards serving scientific journals and charities. He is Secretary and Treasurer of the Network Italiano per la BioTerapia dei Tumori (NIBIT), Council Member of the European Network for Cancer Immunotherapy (ENCI), and member of the SIICA, and the AACR.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Gut microbiota modulation to prevent progression of smoldering multiple myeloma to active disease

Houston Methodist Research Institute

My research focuses on the translation of bench works into new therapeutic approaches/strategies for multiple myeloma and other blood cancers. One of my research goals is to study the mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of myeloma and its associated tumor microenvironment. I have been investigating the interaction of myeloma cells with bone marrow adipocytes, bone cells, and the signaling pathways associated with obesity, inflammation, chemo-, immune-therapeutic resistance, and bone disease, which are the major hurdles in treating myeloma. As a PI, I have managed many projects funded by extramural grants, private funds, and industry alliances. Some highlights include the NIH/NCI R01s and funding received from ASH and ACS. I have an excellent publication track record with peer-review articles that are in top-tier journals with high impact factors (e.g. Cell Metabolism, Science Translational Medicine, Cancer Cell). My research experience shows my capacity to be a PI for this Project.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Targeting acetyl-CoA synthetase 2 to remodel obesity-evoked inflammatory microenvironment in myeloma

Medical College of Wisconsin

Siegfried Janz, MD, DSc, Professor and William G. Schuett, Jr., Multiple Myeloma Endowed Chair directs translational myeloma research at the Division of Hematology, Oncology & Bone Marrow Transplantation, Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee. After obtaining his medical degree and board certification in Clinical Immunology from Leipzig University Medical School, Germany, he received advanced training in genetic and biological pathways of myeloma development at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland. In 2018 he relocated his laboratory to Milwaukee, where he works in close association with his clinical colleagues to enhance our understanding of the natural history of myeloma and improve myeloma treatment and outcomes. His ongoing efforts concentrate on the design and testing of novel immunotherapies that rely on patient-derived T lymphocytes to seek out and kill myeloma.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Improving outcomes of multiple myeloma using TGF-beta resistant BCMA-targeted CAR T cells

University of Calgary

Dr Bahlis is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary in the division of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation and the Charbonneau Cancer Research Institute. Dr Bahlis received his medical degree in 1995 from St Joseph University in Beirut. He then completed his internal Medicine residency at the State University of New York followed by a Hematology-Oncology fellowship and a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer biology at the University of Miami. Dr Bahlis’ clinical and laboratory research focus on the study of plasma cell dyscrasia, with particular interest in multiple myeloma genomics and the development of novel therapeutics. He has received several awards and research funding from numerous agencies including the ASCO young investigator award, the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada, Alberta Cancer Foundation, the Terry Fox Foundations and the Canadian Institute of Health and Research (CIHR).

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Development of a novel BCL2L1 armored CAR T-cell and a tumor-immune interactome in multiple myeloma