Who We Fund

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dr. Mark Murakami is a physician-scientist dedicated to advancing curative treatments for follicular lymphoma. Based in the Division of Hematologic Neoplasia at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Murakami leads a research group focused on understanding how minute numbers of lymphoma cells survive the initial effect of treatment, persist even when patients are in clinical remission, and later expand to cause relapse. Eradication of these rare cells, called minimal residual disease, is felt to be the key to curing follicular lymphoma. Dr. Murakami has dedicated his career to developing methods for tracking, isolating, and analyzing minimal residual disease and understanding how these cells evade pharmacologic therapy as well as the anti-lymphoma immune response. He uses this information to devise novel treatments for rigorous evaluation – first in the laboratory and eventually in clinical trials run by clinical colleagues – that we hope will cure follicular lymphoma.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Exploiting tumor-immune dynamics to inform curative combination therapy for follicular lymphoma

TAP Partner

Rgenta Therapeutics is developing a pipeline of oral, small-molecule RNA-targeting medicines with an initial focus on oncology and neurological disorders. Rgenta has a proprietary platform to mine the massive genomics data to identify targetable RNA processing events and to design small-molecule glues to modulate the interactions among the spliceosome, regulatory proteins, and RNAs. 

Rgenta is working closely with TAP to further develop RNA-targeting molecules by supporting preclinical studies with the goal of moving towards clinical development in hematological malignancies. 

Program Name(s)

Therapy Acceleration Program

Project Title

Supporting development of RNA-targeting molecules for blood cancers

Mayo Clinic

I am a physician-scientist focusing on the biology and therapeutic targeting of B-cell lymphoma. I trained in Medical Oncology in Italy. Given my interest in the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer development, I enrolled in a PhD program in Cellular Biology and Experimental Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK). I explored the impact of novel therapeutic agents aimed at disrupting well-defined oncogenic signaling pathways. I pursued postdoctoral studies at Weill Cornell. The focus of my postdoctoral research was aberrant epigenetic programming and development of precision therapies in B-cell lymphoma. I then honed my clinical expertise in lymphoma as an advanced fellow at MSK. I further enhanced my research skills in immunotherapy and epigenetic as an advanced fellow at Mayo Clinic. Most recently, I have started my independent research program at Mayo Clinic focusing on epigenetic dysregulations in B cell malignancies and their impact on the tumor microenvironment.

Program Name(s)

Special Grants

Identifying the oncogenic cooperation between IRF4 and MYD88l265p and their impact on the Tumor Microenvironment of Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia

University of Cincinnati

Eric J. Vick, MD, PhD is a physician-scientist at the University of Cincinnati who studies how blood cancers such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) survive and resist therapy. His research focuses on inflammatory signaling pathways that leukemia cells use to grow, with the goal of identifying new, mechanism-based treatment strategies. His CDP project investigates dependencies created by blocking IRAK4 signaling to uncover vulnerabilities in leukemia stem and progenitor cells.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Targeting Myeloid Malignancies through IRAK4 Synthetic Lethality Dependencies

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

I am a pediatric oncologist, who is interested in using the patient’s immune system to fight cancer. I grew up in Germany and moved to the US in 1992 after obtaining my medical degree. After completing my training in pediatric and oncology, I became faculty at the Cancer Center of Texas Children’s Hospital and the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine. In the laboratory I focused on developing immune cell therapies for cancer patients, which I translated with my research team into the clinic. In addition, I managed pediatric cancer patients, who underwent bone marrow transplantation, and participated in numerous clinical studies. In 2017 I became Chair of the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The department focuses on evaluating novel transplant and cell therapy approaches using genetic engineering approaches to augment the ability of the immune system to fight cancer.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

CD70-directed CAR T-cell therapy for the treatment of relapsed/refractory pediatric AML

OHSU Knight Cancer Institute

Samantha Tauchmann Ph.D. is a postdoc at the Oregon Health & Science University. She received a B.S. in Molecular Life Sciences from Maastricht University in the Netherlands and her M.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences from the Transnational University Limburg. She completed her PhD under the mentorship of Prof. Dr. Jürg Schwaller at the University Children`s Hospital Basel in Switzerland, where she investigated the role of the methyltransferase NSD1 and the key erythroid transcription factor, GATA1, in erythroleukemia. Dr. Tauchmann joined the Maxson laboratory in February 2023. Her postdoctoral studies are focused on uncovering how SETBP1 mutations contribute to leukemia by modulating the function of methyltransferases. With a strong commitment to understanding blood cell development and leukemia biology, Dr. Tauchmann aspires to identify new therapeutics for SETBP1-mutant leukemias. Her long-term goal is to run an academic laboratory focused on epigenetic dysregulation in blood cancers.

Project Title

Histone methyltransferases as key dependencies in SETBP1-mutant leukemias

Columbia University Medical Center

Jennifer Amengual, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University in the Division of Hematology and Oncology. As a physician-scientist, her research goals are to directly translate observations and concepts developed in the laboratory to rational targeted therapies for patients with lymphoma. Dr. Amengual has led many investigator-initiated trials based on data generated in her laboratory through the NCI Cooperative Group Networks, SWOG and ETCTN. Columbia University is a tertiary care center that performs a high number of organ transplants and has an enrichment of PTLD patients. This has generated great interest in how to improve screening and treatment for these patients. Dr. Amengual has spearheaded a PTLD working group that encompasses transplant, infectious disease, lymphoma and cellular therapy specialists from both the adult and pediatric groups. This has led to the development of several studies providing the foundation for the proposed clinical trial.

Program Name(s)

Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)

Project Title

Defining ctDNA monitoring and immune modulation in a novel, risk stratified clinical trial for PTLD

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Coming soon.

Program Name(s)

Student Mentorship and Research Training (SMART)

Project Title

Therapeutic potential of mitochondrial transplantation in the treatment of MDS

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Dr Dhodapkar is a physician-scientist with expertise in clinical/translational research in cancer immunology/dendritic cell (DC) biology and in immunobiology of myeloma (MM) and related diseases. Following training in immunology in the lab of Nobel Laureate (Late) Ralph Steinman, Dhodapkar lab has been focused on studies of immunobiology of myeloma and cancer immunology. His clinical practice has been focused on patients with myeloma for past 20+ years. He carried the earliest studies of adoptive human DC transfer and in vivo targeting of human DCs. His laboratory has made several seminal contributions to MM biology and cancer immunology. In terms of clinical research in MM, he has led several clinical studies, including the first clinical studies that led to the discovery of anti-myeloma effects of thalidomide (UArk98-003), first US national cooperative group studies in precursor gammopathies(S0120), AL amyloidosis(S9826) and co-led the first phase III studies (E3A06) showing successful prevention of clinical MM. He has served on several panels for clinical guidelines, including as lead for SITC clinical immunotherapy guidelines panel for myeloma. He has co-led the cancer immunology programs at Yale and Emory for the past decade. His work has been cited >34K times with h-index 87. Relevant to the current proposal, he/his group has played a major role in clinical development of T-cell engagers as well as IMiDs in MM, developed the first genetically-humanized model for myeloma and provided new insights into spatial immunology.

Program Name(s)

Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)

Project Title

Pilot trial of microbial targeting to prevent myeloma

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

Columbia University Medical Center

Dr. Jing Fu is an Assistant Professor of Medical Sciences at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. She earned her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Peking University and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. Her research focuses on translational studies of multiple myeloma and AL amyloidosis, with an emphasis on developing novel immunotherapeutic strategies. She investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying disease progression, immune evasion, bone disease, and therapeutic resistance to identify new therapeutic targets and advance precision immunotherapy for patients with plasma cell disorders.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

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

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Martin Dreyling is Professor of Medicine and head of the lymphoma programme at the Department of Medicine III, LMU Hospital Munich. He studied at the Universities of Düsseldorf, Giessen, Tübingen and Würzburg, and completed his clinical training at the Universities of Bonn, Münster, Göttingen and Munich. In addition, he was visiting scientist at the University of Chicago.

His scientific focus is on the molecular basis of malignant transformation, cell cycle dysregulation and secondary genetic alterations as well as biological prognostic factors in malignant lymphoma. He is also interested in innovative therapeutic approaches, including molecular targeted approaches like inhibitors of the B-cell receptor pathway and immunological approaches.

Prof. Dreyling is coordinator of the European MCL Network and president of the German Lymphoma Alliance as well as EHA executive board member. He has co-authored numerous scientific papers and abstracts in international peer-reviewed journals.

Program Name(s)

Mantle Cell Lymphoma Research Initiative

Project Title

MULTIlayer Predictive models for relapsed MCL after ibrutinib as first line therapY (MULTIPLY)