Carma Bylund, PhD
Jacksonville, FL
United States
University of Florida
Coming soon.
Program Name(s)
Equity in Access
Project Title
Markus Muschen, MD, PhD
New Haven, CT
United States
Yale University
Markus Müschen, MD-PhD, is a physician-scientist at Yale University, where he serves as the Director of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology and Chief of the Division of Basic Science of Yale Cancer Center. His research focuses on signal transduction and metabolic pathways in lymphoid malignancies and how they can be intercepted for the treatment of drug-resistant leukemia and lymphoma. Markus Müschen studied Medicine in Cologne, Germany and the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. After his clinical training in hematology-oncology with Volker Diehl, he completed postdoctoral fellowships with Klaus Rajewsky and Janet Rowley. Before coming to Yale, Markus Müschen’s laboratory was at UCSF for seven years where he led the Hematological Malignancies Program at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is currently an HHMI Faculty Scholar, supported by an NCI Outstanding Investigator Award (R35) and serves as mentor for graduate students, clinical and postdoctoral fellows.
Program Name(s)
Translational Research Program
Project Title
Rational repurposing effort to disrupt beta-catenin protein degradation in B-cell malignancies
Faron Pharmaceuticals
immunotherapy, MDS
Faron Pharmaceuticals
Turku,
Finland
TAP Partner
Faron is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on building the future of immunotherapy by harnessing the power of the immune system to tackle cancer and inflammation. The precision immunotherapy in clinical development has the potential to provide permanent immune stimulation for difficult-to-treat cancers through targeting myeloid function.
Program Name(s)
Therapy Acceleration Program
Project Title
Khadijah Olowu
SMART student
Khadijah Olowu,
Stanford, CA
United States
Stanford
Coming soon.
Program Name(s)
Student Mentorship and Research Training (SMART)
Project Title
Catherine Diefenbach
DLBCL immunology
Catherine Diefenbach, MD
New York, NY
United States
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
I am a translational lymphoma researcher and associate professor at the NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center (PCC). My research focuses on the relationship between lymphoma, microenvironment, and systemic immunity. I lead an R01 funded study of the microbiome in DLBCL, and and serve as PI on a multi-investigator R01 investigating new immune strategies for CAR T cells. I have presented data on immune profiling in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) at national and international meetings. Clinically, I have led the effort to integrate immune based approaches into lymphoma therapy, through development of the intergroup Phase 2 protocol E4412 combining brentuximab, nivolumab, and ipilimumab in relapsed HL. I have obtained funding for my research from: the NCI, the ACS, the Lymphoma Research Foundation, Doris Duke (internally awarded), and the NCI Clinical Investigator Team Leader Award for my work with ECOG-ACRIN. My expertise in lymphoma immunology makes me well qualified to lead this current project.
Program Name(s)
Translational Research Program
Project Title
T cell Memory in Cure of Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma: An Investigation of the Immune Interactome
Joachim Yahalom
Lymphoma
Joachim Yahalom, MD
New York, NY
United States
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
MD- Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Residencies and Fellowships in Clinical and radiation Oncology in Israel and Memorial Sloan-Kettering. Armored Brigade Physician (Major), IDF, project leader R&D branch, IDF.
Attending and Member, MSKCC. Co-Leader Lymphoma DMT, Chief- Radiation Hematology Service. Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin NCCN guidelines committees.
Chairman of the International Lymphoma Radiation Oncology Group (www.ilrog.org)—over 1300 members in 75 countries.
Clinical Research focus on role of RT in salvage of lymphomas, breast cancer after chest RT, combined modality in PCNSL, RT for gastric MZL. Currently- clinical and biological aspects of sub-lethal radiation for lymphomas; role of RT to improve CAR-T cell therapy.
Translational research interest: Past- ATM mutations and risk of second cancers; autophagy as a mechanism for tumor cell death after radiation. Present- mechanisms and predictors of lethal effects of very low-dose RT on lymphoma cells and their environment.
Program Name(s)
Translational Research Program
Project Title
Impact of sublethal radiation dose on tumor response, microenvironment and the immune system
Catherine Smith
leukemia
Catherine Smith, MD
San Francisco, CA
United States
University of California San Francisco
Dr. Smith is a physician-scientist whose laboratory focuses on therapeutic resistance mechanisms and novel treatment strategies for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). She has a particular interest in AML associated with mutations in Fms-like Tyrosine Kinase-3 (FLT3), which is the most frequently mutated gene in AML and associated with resistance to conventional therapy. She has been involved in the development of multiple active FLT3 inhibitors as a clinical-translational investigator. Dr. Smith was born and raised in San Francisco, California. She attended Yale University where she majored in Chemistry, graduated cum laude, and was awarded the Howard Douglas Moore Prize for excellence in chemistry. She attended medical school at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Smith has been the recipient of numerous career development awards, including a prior Blood Cancer United Special Fellow in Clinical Research Award.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Project Title
Bailee Kain
AML and African ancestry
Bailee Kain, PhD
Cincinnati, OH
United States
Cincinnati Children's Hospital
Dr. Bailee Kain is from Geneseo, IL and received her B.S. in Biochemistry from University of Missouri in 2016. She completed her doctoral thesis work at Baylor College of Medicine in Dr. Katherine King's laboratory, where she studied how antigenically diverse pathogens reprogram hematopoietic stem cells to induce innate immune cross-protection. In November 2022, Bailee joined Dr. Lee Grimes lab at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) as a postdoctoral research fellow. In the Grimes lab, she has focused on determining the oncogenic potential of novel variants found in African Ancestry AML patients, including PHIP. Through nominating PHIP as a functional oncogene, she hopes to combat cancer health disparities by making AML screening, risk stratification, and therapeutic strategies more inclusive. Following her training, Bailee's goal to is to develop an independent research program focused on understanding the disease mechanism of ancestry specific variants found in AML.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Project Title
Functionalizing novel PHIP variants in ancestry-specific acute myeloid leukemia
Julia Maxson
AML
Julia Maxson, PhD
Portland, OR
United States
Oregon Health & Science University
Dr. Maxson is an assistant professor in the Knight Cancer Institute, where she investigates the cellular and molecular changes that cause myeloid leukemias. She pursued her undergraduate studies at Scripps College and then completed her Ph.D. in Cell Biology in the area of protein trafficking and processing. As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratories of Drs. Jeff Tyner and Brian Druker, she integrated genomic and functional screening data to identify novel therapeutic targets in leukemia. Notably, Dr. Maxson identified mutations in CSF3R in the vast majority of patients with chronic neutrophilic leukemia. She discovered that these mutations confer sensitivity to JAK inhibitors, which resulted in a clinical trial for these patients. The Maxson laboratory works to understand how genomic changes manifest at the cellular level to promote cancer formation and progression. Her long-term goal is to use this understanding to develop lifesaving treatments for patients with leukemia.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Project Title
Targeting the interplay between signaling and transcriptional dysfunction in myeloid leukemias
Christian Marinaccio
MLL leukemias
Christian Marinaccio, PhD
Boston, MA
United States
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Christian Marinaccio is a research fellow in Dr. Scott Armstrong laboratory at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. After graduating with a master of science in medical Biotechnology from University of Bari, Italy, he joined the laboratory of John D Crispino at Northwestern University to pursue a PhD in Life Sciences focused on blood malignancies. Under the supervision of Dr. Crispino, his research focused on mechanisms of progression from myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Currently, his research interests lay in the study of mechanisms of fusion protein turnover in KMT2A rearranged leukemias and in the study of leukemic transformation processes at the hematopoietic stem cell level, including cell of origin and clonal dynamics.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Project Title
Steven Horwitz
T-cell lymphomas
Steven Horwitz, MD
New York, NY
United States
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Coming soon.
Program Name(s)
Specialized Center of Research Program
Project Title
Alieen Rowan
Adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma
Alieen Rowan, PhD
London,
United Kingdom
Imperial College, University of London
After completing a PhD in Immunology at Trinity College Dublin, I moved to Imperial College London to study how persistent infection with a virus causes Leukemia, Lymphoma and other diseases. The virus in question is Human T cell leukemia virus type-1 (HTLV-1), which infects the very cells which defend us against viruses: T cells. Around 5% of virus-carriers develop aggressive blood cancer (Adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma, ATL), in which one infected T cell becomes malignant. ATL is very difficult to treat, and people with the most aggressive forms survive for less than a year. I made the game-changing discovery that ATL-like T cells circulate in the blood of carriers who go on to develop ATL years before they show symptoms of ATL. I am now developing new diagnostics which can detect ATL early, and together with clinicians at the U.K. National Centre for Human Retrovirology and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, will test whether a recently licenced drug can eliminate ATL-like T cells in high-risk carriers.
Program Name(s)
Translational Research Program
Project Title
Detection and treatment of Adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma in the premalignant stage.