Who We Fund

Weill Cornell Medicine

Roberta Zappasodi is an Assistant Professor of Hematology in Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology of the Department of Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College (New York, NY) and Visiting Investigator at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK, New York, NY). Her research program in cancer immunotherapy involves: 1) the study of the immune microenvironment in the pathogenesis of B-cell lymphomas and in the response of these diseases to immunotherapy; 2) the role of B-cell responses in the anti-tumor activity of immune checkpoint blockade therapy; and 3) the definition of T-cell-mediated suppressive mechanisms as targets and biomarkers of immunotherapy.

The overall goal of her research is to identify biomarkers of immune and anti-tumor activity with immediate clinical application and to improve the understanding of the mechanisms underlying resistance to immunotherapy.

She is a Bridge Fellow in the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Dr. Zappasodi completed her PhD in Tumor Immunology/Immunotherapy at the National Cancer Institute of Milan (Milan, Italy) and was the recipient of a Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Scholar Award during her post-doctoral training at MSK in the Wolchok/Merghoub group.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Restoring lymphoma immunosurveillance by combined EZH2 inhibition and immunotherapy

Washington University in St. Louis

Stephen Oh, MD, PhD is Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Oh’s clinical and laboratory research efforts are focused on myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). His group employs patient samples and animal models to investigate fundamental mechanisms driving the initiation, development, and progression of MPNs. A major focus of the laboratory is to utilize mass cytometry and multiplex imaging approaches to interrogate dysregulated cytokine signaling networks in MPNs. Dr. Oh has extensive clinical experience in the diagnosis and management of MPN patients and has contributed to numerous clinical trials investigating novel targeted therapies for MPN patients. The long-term objective of his work is to translate the findings from his laboratory research into improved therapies for MPN patients.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Leveraging dysregulated signaling networks for therapeutic benefit in myeloproliferative neoplasms

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Coming soon.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Project Title

Translational Discovery in Peripheral T-Cell Lymphomas

University of Southern California

I am a genetic epidemiologist and Assistant Professor in the Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the USC Keck School of Medicine. During my PhD, my research was focused on genetic variation and its role in human disease, and I received training in genetic epidemiology. Keen to pursue a career in childhood cancer research, I obtained a postdoctoral position at UCSF studying the etiology of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer. In 2018, I started a faculty position at USC, where I lead epidemiology studies of ALL in high-risk populations, including Hispanic/Latinos and children with Down syndrome. My research has led to several novel discoveries, identifying new genetic risk factors for ALL and shedding light on how Down syndrome increases leukemia risk. Understanding the causes of childhood ALL is my life’s work, with the hope that our discoveries will help to develop precision prevention strategies.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Leveraging Susceptible Populations and Unique Resources in a Pathway to Prevention of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

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

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Daniel T. Starczynowski, Ph.D leads a laboratory at Cincinnati Children's Hospital focused on the intersection of inflammation, innate immune signaling, and hematologic malignancies, with an emphasis on myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia. Dr. Starczynowski is currently the Katherine Stewart Waters Endowed Chair in Hematologic Malignancies, professor in Pediatrics, and co-leader of the Hematologic Malignancies Program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

Program Name(s)

Discovery

Project Title

Rational therapeutic targeting of oncogenic immune signaling states in myeloid malignancies

MD Anderson Cancer Center

Michael Wang, MD, is Professor of Lymphoma and Myeloma at MD Anderson Cancer Center where he established the Mantle Cell Lymphoma Program of Excellence, the world’s only program dedicated exclusively to MCL research and treatment. He led trials resulting in 3 FDA approvals for MCL treatment. He leads a large lab focusing on overcoming resistance to MCL therapies and developing new ones. His detailed studies of tissue from patients with MCL has been instrumental in setting the stage for this application. Jia Zhou, PhD, is Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Apart from academia, he worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 7 years. His primary research interest is drug discovery and the development of novel small-molecule therapeutics for cancers and other diseases. He has established a fruitful collaboration with Dr. Wang and his lab and has great experience in leading both the chemical and pharmacological aspects of drug development.

Program Name(s)

Mantle Cell Lymphoma Research Initiative

Project Title

Development of novel BTK-MALT1 dual inhibitors to treat MCL

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Qingyu Luo is a research fellow in Dr. Andrew Lane’s lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a research fellow at Harvard Medical School. He is focusing on the application of cutting-edge technology such as functional genomics to discover cures for blood cancer. In his PhD research, he studied how the tumor suppressor ARID1A prevents esophageal cancer. He also defined novel molecular mechanisms that protect ovarian cancer cells from dying in the setting of chemotherapy. He has 9 first-author publications in high-impact journals (average impact factor > 10). Now, Qingyu is applying his cancer biology expertise to high-risk blood cancers including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN). His goal is to reveal how BPDCN functions to identify novel therapies that lead to cures of this malignancy, and to find parallels of BPDCN biology in other blood cancers that can also be exploited therapeutically.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Defining PIK3R5-related PI3K gamma dependency as a novel therapeutic target in blood cancers including BPDCN

Emory University

Lawrence Boise, PhD is the R. Randall Rollins Chair of Oncology and Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology in the Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Boise also serves as the Associate Director of Education and Training in the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. He received his PhD from VCU-Medicine and did his postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago. Dr. Boise took his first faculty position at the University of Miami in 1996 and rose to the rank of Professor before moving to Emory in 2009. Dr. Boise was involved in early studies to identify genes that control cell survival and cell death and has been studying these processes to better understand how to improve our treatment of cancer, particularly the plasma cell malignancy multiple myeloma. Dr. Boise serves as a Senior Editor at Molecular Cancer Research and is on the editorial board of Blood Cancer Discovery.

Program Name(s)

Discovery

Project Title

Functional dissection of heterogeneity of responses to CAR T cells using Spatiotemporal Image-guided Genomic and Cellular Analysis (SaGA) in myeloma

University of Florida

Jonathan D. Licht, MD, is the Director of the University of Florida Health Cancer Center, leading it to become the 72nd NCI-designated center in the country. Dr. Licht’s laboratory studies the role of abnormal function of histone methyltransferases and demethylases in malignancies such as multiple myeloma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia and recently described a new class of mutations in histones in cancer. NCI funded for nearly 35 years, Dr. Licht is also Principal Investigator of a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) Specialized Center of Research, now in its 17th year of funding. He is the founding Editor- in-Chief of Blood Neoplasia, a new journal of the American Society of Hematology, and serves on the editorial boards of Cancer Research, Oncogene and Clinical Cancer Research. Dr. Licht was the first chair of the AACR Taskforce on Hematological Malignancies of and currently is Chair of the Medical/Scientific Board of the LLS. Dr. Licht has published more than 230 articles, reviews and book chapters and has mentored over 40 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and 20 faculty members.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Targeting Enhancer Dysfunction in Hematological Malignancy

Adenylate Kinase 2-A Novel Therapeutic Target 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

Cleveland Clinic

Paolo Caimi is a physician and clinical investigator at the Cleveland Clinic, where he is also the Associate Bone Marrow Transplant Director for Cellular Therapy. Dr. Caimi completed his medical training at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago, Chile. He finished residency at Johns Hopkins University / Sinai Hospital Residency Program in Internal Medicine followed by a hematology and oncology fellowship at Case Western Reserve University. His clinical focus is on the care of patients with lymphoid malignancies and his research is centered around early phase trials, with an emphasis on phase I trials of cellular therapy.

Program Name(s)

Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)

Project Title

BAFF-ligand CAR T-cells and pre-apheresis B cell lymphodepletion for relapsed / refractory CLL