Who We Fund

Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research

Jae Park, MD is an Attending Physician and Chief of Cellular Therapy Service, and a Director of Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Park has written over 100 peer-reviewed articles appearing in New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, Blood, Cancer Discovery and Journal of Clinical Oncology focused on developing effective and safe targeted and immunotherapies and conducting translational studies. To this end, he has successfully conducted over 15 investigator-initiated therapeutic trials in the field of hematologic malignancies and cellular therapy with grant supports from ASH, LLS, ASCO, AACR and NCCN. He is widely recognized as one of the world experts in the field of CAR T cell therapies and ALL and is the leading PI of clinical trials in patients with ALL and CLL/NHL using CAR T, NK cell therapies, BiTEs, IDCs, targeted agents, and immunomodulators.

Program Name(s)

Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)

Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Initiative

Project Title

IL7 receptor-targeted CAR T-cell Therapy for T-Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-ALL)

Developing novel therapeutic approaches for classical and variant hairy cell leukemia

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

I am a medical oncologist with the Myeloma Service and a member of the Cellular Therapeutics Center and the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. My research focuses on the clinical development of novel immune and cellular therapies for patients with multiple myeloma and translational research focused on better understanding the responses to cellular therapies and possible mechanisms of relapse. I am the principal investigator for multiple chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T trials for multiple myeloma, including the first trials of an allogeneic CAR T cell therapy and autologous GPRC5D CAR T cells for myeloma .

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Improving outcomes with immune therapies for multiple myeloma

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

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

I am pursuing a research career that bridges the gap between translational and clinical research in health disparities with a dual focus on genomics and equity. My motivation is to improve outcomes for all children with cancer—particularly children from historically marginalized populations. My long-term goal is to become an independently funded physician scientist leading a multidisciplinary research team. 

In clinic, I take care of children with leukemia and lymphoma. The objective of my research is to better understand the biology of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LL) for children of different ancestral backgrounds. I have done preliminary work in T-ALL which I will build upon and expand to T-LL, which has never been examined with comprehensive sequencing and ancestry. My goal is to prevent more children with these diseases from relapsing. Results from this investigation will lay the groundwork for my career as an independent scientist.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Impact of genetic ancestry on tumor biology and survival outcomes in T-ALL and T-LL

The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

I am an assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where I treat patients suffering from leukemias and lymphomas. In my clinical practice, I experience firsthand the lack of treatment options and the poor outcomes in patients with relapsed T cell leukemias and T cell lymphomas. Therefore, my laboratory research focuses on the development of new therapies for the treatment of these T cell cancers. Using my background in T cell biology (Paul et al Immunity 2012, Paul et al Science Signaling 2014) and my collaborators expertise in antibody design, I developed therapies that selectively kill T cell cancers and spare the majority of normal T cells (Paul et al. Sci. Transl. Med. 2021). My goal is to conduct the preclinical validation of the T cell cancer targeting therapies so they can be tested in patients through early phase clinical trials. We hope that our novel therapies will provide new treatment options and improve survival in patients with T cell leukemias and lymphomas.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

TCR-directed immunotoxins and antibody drug conjugates for the treatment of T cell malignancies

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Hayden Bell 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 novel research techniques to discover cures for blood cancers. In his PhD research, he identified novel drug combinations for the treatment of high-risk and relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). He also developed a cutting-edge pipeline allowing large-scale drug screening of primary leukemias using machine learning which is helping other researchers in the battle against leukemias. Now, Hayden is applying his leukemia biology expertise to other high-risk blood cancers including acute myeloid leukemia (AML). He is specifically focused upon sex-biased drivers and dependencies in myeloid disease, and how these might afford new opportunities for novel treatments.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

How does loss of chromosome Y perturb blood cell biology and create therapeutic vulnerabilities in acute myeloid leukemia?

University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus

Dr. Eric Pietras is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. He completed his PhD training in microbiology and immunology at UCLA in 2008. He subsequently joined the laboratory of Dr. Emmanuelle Passegué for postdoctoral training and started his independent faculty position at the University of Colorado in November of 2015, earning promotion to Associate Professor in July 2021. Dr. Pietras leads a research program that leverages his dual backgrounds in innate immunity and hematopoiesis, focusing on the interplay between inflammation and oncogenic mutations as a trigger for alterations in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSC) metabolism that promote evolution to malignancy. The goal of his lab is to identify novel approaches for targeting this pathogenic process to disrupt myeloid oncogenesis and improve patient outcomes.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Targeting the pathogenic 'fire triangle' of inflammation, metabolism and mutations in myeloid leukemogenesis

Baylor College of Medicine

I was born in New York City to two hard-working and driven parents who encouraged me to pursue my passions and not back down from a challenge. I determined I loved science in high school and earned a Westinghouse Science Talent Search award for work done on vaccine development. In college, at Duke University, I decided to pursue medical school when a friend had a relapse of her cancer. Medical school and Pediatrics Residency was in NYC at Columbia University and Mount Sinai respectively where my passion for caring for children with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was solidified. For Fellowship I moved my family to Texas to pursue pediatric oncology training at Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine and continued on to get my Ph.D. in Clinical Investigation. The resources at TCH/BCM have allowed me to become an outstanding clinician, a recognized educator, and to pursue my goal of improving outcomes for the next generation of children to be diagnosed with AML.

Program Name(s)

Dare to Dream

Project Title

Pediatric AML PDX Models and Drug Testing-Gateway to Novel PedAL Trials

University of California, Los Angeles

Yue Wang, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA with extensive expertise in developmental and stem cell biology. He earned his PhD in Regenerative Medicine from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he conducted groundbreaking research on the regulatory mechanisms of trophoblast lineage differentiation. Dr. Wang also developed a stem-cell based organoid model to study Zika virus effects on human placenta. At UCLA, he works with Dr. Hanna Mikkola and uses single cell technologies to understand how Trisomy 21 affects human B cell development and transformation to aggressive form of B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in children with Down Syndrome. His work aims to identify cellular origins and molecular mechanisms driving this unique type of leukemia, offering potential insights for safer and more effective therapies.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Unraveling the Cellular and Molecular Origins of B-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Down syndrome

Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope

I am a physician employed at the University of Michigan who specializes in the management of patients with a very specific blood cancer called lymphoma. The term "Lymphoma" describes a collection (subtypes) of tumors that originate from a blood cell called a lymphocyte. The different subtypes can have very different presentations and outcomes. Treatment for lymphoma differs from most other cancers in that chemotherapy and not surgery is essential. As part of my work at the university I conduct research in lymphoma. My research involves evaluating new drugs and drug combinations in patients with lymphoma as part of clinical trials. Clinical trials offer treatments for patients who have no other viable options and/or gives patients an opportunity to receive promising drugs that would otherwise not be available. As part of the clinical trials, I use special tests to evaluate for reasons why the drugs do or don't work. This part of the research is important to allow for me to better select patients for certain treatments and to better understanding of what makes lymphoma cells survive.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Stratified treatment of newly diagnosed MCL based on the presence or absence of high risk features utilizing non-cytotoxic agents.

University of Perugia. Department of Medicine and Surgery

Dr. Enrico Tiacci is a physician scientist who established an independent translational and clinical research program in leukemias and lymphomas at the University and Hospital of Perugia, where he is Associate Professor of Hematology. His most relevant scientific contributions to pathogenesis, diagnosis and therapy of blood cancers span Hodgkin lymphoma, acute myeloid leukemia and, within the field of HCL, include the discovery of BRAF mutation as the genetic cause of this disease, its diagnostic exploitation and its therapeutic targeting in the clinic, which radically changed the understanding of HCL and considerably improved its treatment. For his achievements (mostly published in the highly influential New England Journal of Medicine), Dr. Tiacci received several prestigious national and international prizes as well as scientific grants from the most competitive international research agencies, including the European Research Council and Blood Cancer United.

Program Name(s)

Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Initiative

Project Title

BRAF inhibition as an alternative to chemotherapy in the treatment strategy of hairy cell leukemia

BRAF and BCL2 coinhibition with vemurafenib and venetoclax as a rational, short, all-oral targeted therapy for relapsed/refractory hairy cell leukemia

Garvan Institute of Medical Research

Peter trained at the University of Wales College of Medicine and Cambridge and Oxford Universities in the UK. In 2003 he joined Sheffield University and became joint Director of the Mellanby Center for Bone Research and Head of Department of Human Metabolism. In 2011 Peter joined the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney where he is Director of the Cancer Plasticity and Dormancy program. Peter is an international leader in understanding myeloma bone disease. He discovered key molecular pathways that cause myeloma bone disease. This research contributed to development of bone targeted therapies, including anti-RANKL and zoledronic acid, that are now in routine clinical use globally. Peter’s current research is investigating molecular pathways, including the Wnt pathway and sclerostin, that target osteoblasts, restore lost bone, increase bone strength and stop fractures. He is also investigating the role of bone cells in controlling myeloma cell dormancy and disease relapse.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Targeting the Osteogenic Lineage as a Therapeutic Strategy in Multiple Myeloma