Who We Fund

University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus

Dr. Craig T. Jordan is currently the Nancy Carroll Allen Professor and Chief of the Division of Hematology at the University of Colorado Denver.  He has been studying human leukemia stem cells for over 20 years, using molecular and genetic analyses to identify characteristics that may enhance targeted therapy for leukemia. Dr. Jordan completed his doctoral studies at Princeton University and then went on to perform post-doctoral studies at MIT’s Whitehead Institute. He has been an editorial board member for several journals including Cell Stem Cell, Leukemia, and PLoS Biology. Dr. Jordan has published over 150 peer-reviewed original research articles, review articles and book chapters. His honors include the Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship, the Stohlman Scholar Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Wehrheim Professorship in cancer research, and the NCI Outstanding Investigator award.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Project Title

Therapeutic targeting of AML stem cells

The Jackson Laboratory

Dr. Jayna Mistry was awarded her PhD degree at the University of East Anglia and the Earlham Institute in Norwich, United Kingdom following her thesis work in the laboratory of Dr. Stuart Rushworth and Professor Kristian Bowles. She discovered translationally relevant mechanisms by which stress can induce metabolic alterations in hematopoietic stem cells due to interactions with non-hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow microenvironment. She is continuing her training as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Jennifer Trowbridge at The Jackson Laboratory studying aging-associated mechanisms causing clonal hematopoiesis and blood cancers. Dr. Mistry currently holds a Scholar Award from The Jackson Laboratory. She is first author on four primary research articles and a review article, and co-author on ten additional primary research publications.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Bone Marrow Stromal Cell Senescence Induced by Dnmt3a-Mutant Hematopoiesis Drives Clonal Hematopoiesis and Transformation to Myeloid Malignancy

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

Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network

Dr. Courtney Jones received her PhD from New York University in 2014 and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado. Throughout her training, Courtney’s research focused on understanding and targeting acute leukemia cells. She is currently a Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. The goal of Dr. Jones’s research is to discovery new ways to target leukemia cells with the overall goal of improving outcomes for patients with leukemia while minimizing side effects. To date, her largest contribution to blood cancer research was the discovery of metabolic vulnerabilities of leukemia cells that have been translated into clinical trials in collaboration with her clinical colleagues. The objective of her current research studies is to discover and develop a new strategy to eradicate leukemia cells in patients for whom standard chemotherapy has failed.

Program Name(s)

Discovery

Project Title

Interrogation of glutathione biology in relapsed acute myeloid leukemia stem cells

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Dr. Michael G. Kharas is a Member of the Molecular Pharmacology Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY, USA) and member of Center for Hematological Malignancies. Dr. Kharas finished his postdoctoral training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and studied how signaling pathways alters stem cell regulation with Drs. Gary Gilliland and George Daley. In 2011 he started his laboratory at MSK and focused on the controllers of cellular fate in the blood. His laboratory has uncovered new RNA regulators and how they modulate self-renewal, cell-fate decisions, and differentiation in both normal blood development and in myeloid leukemia. Dr. Kharas has received recognition including the Leukemia Lymphoma Society Scholar Award and American Society of Hematology Scholar Award. His laboratory is developing inhibitors that block the function of RNA regulators as a new therapeutic strategy in leukemia.

Program Name(s)

Discovery

Project Title

Discovering the function and targeting dysregulated nuclear condensates in myeloid leukemia

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

My name is Ivan Odak and I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Brody lab. I am an accomplished researcher with 20 authored papers, 9 of which as first or last author. I obtained my PhD summa cum laude from Hannover Biomedical Research School in Germany, where I also worked as a postdoc in the lab of Reinhold Förster. Though challenging, I find science primarily enjoyable, and I like using my skills to tackle important questions in the field of immuno-therapy. The colleagues see me as tireless force in the workplace and I often use my positive attitude and energy to motivate others. My ultimate goal is to establish my own lab dedicated to research and discovery of cancer immunotherapies.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Prevention of antigen escape by modulation of off-target tumor killing in T cells

Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network

Tak W. Mak is an international leader in cancer and immunology research. He is best known for his cloning of the human T cell receptor in 1984, which led to the CAR-T therapies now approved for leukemias/lymphomas. His lab also generated numerous genetically modified mouse strains to identify key factors in immune disorders and cancers. His group’s demonstration that CTLA4 negatively regulates T cell activation paved the way for checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. Most recently, his team showed that T and B cells produce acetylcholine in a manner influencing tumorigenesis and autoimmunity. On the biotech front, Dr. Mak co-founded Agios Pharmaceuticals, which produced two IDH inhibitors that are now FDA-approved for treatment of AML. The Mak team has also developed two novel agents targeting aneuploid cancer cells. These agents have shown promise in phase 2 clinical trials. Dr. Mak has published >950 papers, holds 20 patents, and has received over 35 national and international awards.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Project Title

The Immune Niche in the Development of Hematological Malignancies and Implications for Novel Therapy

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

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Dr. Magee directs the pediatric leukemia and lymphoma program at Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Washington University and then completed a pediatrics residency and hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Michigan. He conducted postdoctoral research with Dr. Sean Morrison (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) at the University of Michigan and UT-Southwestern. Dr. Magee’s work focuses on causes and treatments for childhood acute myeloid leukemia. He has published several papers in high impact journals investigating interactions between genes that regulate normal childhood blood development and mutations that cause leukemia, with the goal of understanding why childhood leukemias respond differently to treatment than adult leukemias. He is also investigating changes in blood forming stem cells that lead to leukemia when children receive chemotherapy for other tumors, such as lymphomas or solid tumors.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Neonatal origins of pediatric AML

Stanford University

Dr. Lori Muffly MD MS is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. Dr. Muffly is a clinician and clinical investigator whose research includes both health outcomes and clinical trials pertaining to adults with acute leukemia. Her clinical practice serves adults across Northern California with advanced acute leukemias who require hematopoietic cell transplantation and other cellular immunotherapies. She has a specific research interest in improving access to specialty cancer care and reducing health disparities in young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and has published extensively on these topics. She also serves as the PI of multiple investigator-initiated health outcomes studies and clinical trials, including studies evaluating measurable residual disease in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia, novel chimeric antigen receptor T cell studies for acute leukemia, and she leads a recently established real world consortium investigating outcomes following cellular therapies administered to adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Dr. Muffly has successfully collaborated with Drs. Parsons and Keegan on several previous studies and publications related to adolescent and young adult leukemia and access to cancer care and has delivered numerous national talks on the subject.

Program Name(s)

Equity in Access

Project Title

Towards Equity in Specialized Cancer Care for Adolescents and Young Adults with Newly Diagnosed Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Philippe Armand, MD, PhD, is the Chief of the Lymphoma Division and the Harold and Virginia Lash/David Lash Chair in Lymphoma Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Armand’s research interests center on the treatment of lymphoma. His primary research focus is the study of immunotherapy to improve the efficacy of treatment and the outcome of patients with a variety of lymphoma types. Other areas of specific research interest are the study of CAR-T therapy in lymphoma and the development of next-generation assays to characterize, track and target tumors, especially aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin Lymphomas and Hodgkin Lymphoma. After earning his Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University, Dr. Armand received his Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of California at San Francisco. He completed his internship and residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and fellowship training at DFCI.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Checkpoint-Based Immunotherapy in Follicular Lymphoma

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dr. Lane’s laboratory and translational research focuses on the biology of high-risk blood cancers, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN). His goal is to identify new therapeutic targets and to understand treatment resistance. He is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a physician in the Leukemia Program, and a lab investigator in the Division of Hematologic Neoplasia in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is director of the BPDCN Center at Dana-Farber. He is also an associate member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Dr. Lane received a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Vanderbilt University, and MD and PhD degrees from Washington University. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and fellowships in hematology and medical oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN): understanding disease biology to improve therapy