Who We Fund

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Reina Takeda, M.D., Ph. D., is a hematologist and currently a Research Fellow in Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). After receiving her MD in Japan, she completed her clinical training in internal medicine and hematology/oncology. She received her PhD from the University of Tokyo in 2020 for her basic research on epigenetic dysregulation in myeloid malignancies and joined Dr. Scott Armstrong's lab at DFCI in 2022. Her clinical experience as a physician in Japan has inspired her to develop a deeper understanding of the pathogenesis and molecular biology of hematologic malignancies. Her research interests focus on how oncogenic proteins cause transcriptional dysregulation in hematologic malignancies and contribute to their pathogenesis. As a hematology/oncology physician-scientist, her research goal is to translate basic scientific knowledge from the bench to the bedside by identifying novel therapeutics that target key regulatory pathways.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

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

University of Cambridge

George Vassiliou is Professor of Hematological Medicine and Co-lead of the Hematological Malignancies Program at the University of Cambridge, and Consultant Hematologist at Cambridge University Hospitals.

He studies the pre-clinical evolution, molecular pathogenesis and treatment of myeloid cancers. Highlights of his work include the co-discovery of the shared precursor of myeloid cancers, clonal hematopoiesis (CH), the description of its lifelong natural history and the first demonstration that individuals at risk of these cancers can be identified years in advance, opening the prospect of their prevention. He also developed the first genomic diagnostic tools for myeloid cancers, discovered mechanisms of how they develop and identified hundreds of potential treatment targets using the first genome-wide CRISPR genetic screen in any human cancer. His work has led to development of new treatments, including METTL3 inhibitors that are now in clinical trials against acute myeloid leukemia.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Project Title

Development of a clinical program for myeloid cancer prevention

Stanford University

I am a physician-scientist and an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (BMT&CT). Clinically, I care for patients with high-risk lymphoma and other blood cancers. I am the principal investigator of clinical trials investigating novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for the treatment of relapsed and refractory leukemia and lymphoma. These trials, in part, provide the critical and precious patient samples that are the subject of my laboratory-based research efforts. My research group is dedicated to understanding the clinical outcomes of our patients who receive these immunotherapies with the goal of improving clinical response while minimizing toxicity.

Program Name(s)

Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)

Project Title

Autologous CD22 CAR T cell Therapy for the Treatment of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

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

Weill Cornell Medicine

Dr. Cerchietti is physician scientist dedicated to translational research in hematology oncology. His lab conduct mechanistic studies on the genetic, metabolic, and epigenetic regulation of lymphoma and microenvironment cells. Therapeutic approaches developed from his lab have been successfully translated to patients in investigator-initiated to cooperative group phase 3 clinical trials. Dr. Cerchietti also developed biomarkers to improve the precision of these interventions. Successfully translated research includes the concept of epigenetic priming to improve chemotherapy and immunotherapy as well as the discovering of the mechanism of action of XPO1 inhibitors in lymphomas contributing to gain FDA approval. A major focus of his lab is the study of the microenvironment to provide novel therapeutic targets as well as patient selection biomarkers (the “LME” classification) to improve the precision of therapies and increase disease curability.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Targeting the microenvironment to increase immunity and immunotherapy response in DLBCL

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

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Eirini Papapetrou, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Oncological Sciences, Hematology and Medical Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr Papapetrou’s research program seeks to uncover new disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets for myeloid neoplasms. Dr Papapetrou pioneered the development of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models of myeloid malignancies. Her laboratory leverages genetically faithful isogenic iPSC models of myeloid malignancies generated through patient cell reprogramming and precise CRISPR-mediated gene editing and exploits the unique capabilities they offer towards target discovery and validation through mechanistic interrogation, genetic and chemical screens, and functional studies. Dr. Papapetrou is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Outstanding New investigator Award, Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, Pershing Square Sohn Prize and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Studying the biology and therapeutic vulnerabilities of leukemia stem cells using AML-iPSCs

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Christopher Flowers, MD, MS, FASCO is Professor and Chair of the UT MD Anderson Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma. In 2020, he also became the Division Head ad interim for the Division of Cancer Medicine. Dr. Flowers will serve as the LLS IMPACT overall PI. As Chair of the ASCO Health Disparities Committee, Dr. Flowers co-authored the AACR/ACS/ASCO/NCI position statement -Charting the Future for Cancer Disparities Research. He has held NCI and V Foundation grants to investigate the biology of racial disparities in lymphoma. He is an internationally recognized expert in lymphoma clinical and outcomes research and leads the Lymphoma Integrated Network for Access to Clinical trials for Under-represented Populations (LINCT-UP), a partnership with MCC and the Lyndon B. Johnson County Hospital in Houston to increase minority clinical trial participation at these sites.

Program Name(s)

IMPACT

Project Title

Research Infrastructure to Promote Enrollment of Underserved Patients on Clinical Trials

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

I am an Assistant Professor at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. My areas of research interest include drug development and signaling with focus on small GTPases. My research is both basic and translational.

My research efforts encompass several methodologies, including structural biology, biophysical and biochemical studies, cellular functional assays, and ultimately, identifying small molecule compounds that bind to and modulate GTPase signaling in in vivo pre-clinical models of cancer.

RAC GTPases are key regulators of cell growth. By reorganizing the actin cytoskeleton, RAC plays a key role in cancer cell metastasis. It is also involved in mechanisms of resistance to therapies. My lab's goal is to inhibit RAC in leukemia by understanding the molecular mechanisms driving its hyperactivity.

One of my lab’s groundbreaking discoveries is the identification of a small molecule inhibitor of VAV3, a RAC activator. Current research studies the efficacy of VAV3 inhibition in models of relapsed/recurrent leukemia.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Overcoming RAS-driven Mechanisms of Resistance in Leukemia

TAP Partner

Immunitas is a single cell genomics-based therapeutics company focused on immunology that is advancing multiple programs to the clinic. Immunitas’ programs are derived from their platform, a cross-functional, highly integrated, single cell genomics approach that enables rapid target identification and validation in parallel with antibody discovery and engineering.

Program Name(s)

Therapy Acceleration Program

Project Title

A phase 1/2 study of IMT-009, an antibody targeting CD161, in patients with advanced solid tumors or lymphomas

Northwestern

Paola Aguilar Neuville is a 3rd year medical student at Indiana University School of Medicine. As a Latina woman from a region where treatable cancers claim millions of lives, she is committed to research as a way to both give back to the community that nurtured her and have a broader impact in the field of oncology. Her research year began in July 2024 in the lab of Dr. Jaehyuk Choi at Northwestern in Chicago.

Program Name(s)

Student Mentorship and Research Training (SMART)

Project Title

Cellular and genetic drivers of Cutaneous γδ T-cell lymphomas (PCGDTL)