Who We Fund

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dr. Chen is a Clinical Investigator and Attending Physician in the Adult Leukemia Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He attended Stanford University School of Medicine and completed Internal Medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Medical Oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His research interest is in the development of novel therapies for advanced myeloid neoplasms such as acute leukemias and myelodysplastic syndromes, with particular focuses on cell therapies and epigenetic approaches. 

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Memory-like natural killer cells and venetoclax to eradicate measurable residual disease in AML

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Eric Smith, MD PhD is Director of Translational Research for Immune Effector Cell Therapies at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) where his primary responsibility is as PI of a gene and cell engineering pre-clinical laboratory. He is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School (Immunology PhD Faculty); Associate Member at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; a Member at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy; and the founding faculty director of the IMmunotherapy Platform for Antibody and CAR Therapeutics Development and Translation (IMPACT2) Center at DFCI. He received his MD/PhD and internal medicine training at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and medical oncology and post-doctoral training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and stayed on as faculty in the Cellular Engineering Center and Myeloma/Cellular Therapy services. He was recruited to DFCI in 2020 to advance the home-grown adoptive cellular therapy pipeline there. The Smith Lab for Genetic and Cellular Engineering focuses on pre-clinical efforts to advance the field and developing therapies for both hematologic and solid tumors for the benefit of patients. More than a dozen clinical trials have been initiated stemming from his team’s lab work. The most developed of which is a first-in-class CAR targeting GPRC5D, a target he described as important for the immunotherapy of myeloma; he and his colleagues reported the phase I study in NEJM, and a phase II multi-center registration study is now ongoing.

Program Name(s)

Discovery

Project Title

Interrogating T-cell apoptotic priming to improve CAR-T persistence in treatment of lymphoid malignancies

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.

Columbia University Medical Center

Dr. Doulatov is an Associate Professor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. His laboratory investigates how normal hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) transform into blood cancers. As an undergraduate at UCLA with Dr. Jeff Miller, he discovered a new class of retroelements. As a Ph.D. student with Dr. John Dick at the University of Toronto, he helped establish the “roadmap” of the human HSC and progenitor hierarchy. As a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. George Daley at Harvard, he identified methods to promote HSC development from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These advances have enabled the use of iPSCs as a platform for disease modeling and drug screens, leading to the discovery of a drug for inherited anemia. The Doulatov laboratory is using human iPSCs and HSCs to discover how oncogenic mutations cooperate to transform normal stem cells into leukemias. His long-term goal is to develop treatments that target malignant stem cells leading to lasting remissions for patients.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Modeling and targeting leukemic transformation of human hematopoietic stem cells

The University of Alabama at Birmingham

Rui Lu, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an Associate Scientist at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. He received his Ph.D. from the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and completed postdoctoral training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Lu leads a research laboratory focused on deciphering the epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms that drive cancer, with an emphasis on developing targeted, mechanism-based therapies. His expertise spans chromatin regulation, transcriptional control, leukemia biology, and functional genomics, supported by diverse molecular, cellular, bioinformatic, and in vivo modeling approaches. His independent research program has been recognized by multiple competitive awards from the NCI, ASH, ACS, the Mark Foundation, and others, and has produced a series of high-impact, peer-reviewed publications in the field of leukemia and epigenetics.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Dissecting and Targeting Epigenetic and Transcriptional Dependencies in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

The Ohio State University

I am an Associate Professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Biomedical Informatics at The Ohio State University. My laboratory investigates epigenomic, genetic and other molecular features of a broad range of hematological malignancies, with a focus on B cell lymphoma and acute myeloid leukemia. I explores high-throughput epigenetic and molecular profiling data and combines these analyses with functional evaluation of key genes and molecular pathways. My laboratory is interested in the developmental origins of epigenetic programs in lymphoid and myeloid malignancies and aims to uncover the ontogeny of disease development. Current research focuses on investigating genes that function in establishing aberrant global epigenetic states and landscapes. Beyond fundamental tumor biology, I aims to develop novel molecular diagnostics for clinical stratification and prediction of treatment response, as well as the identification of novel therapeutic targets.

Program Name(s)

Hairy Cell Leukemia Research Initiative

Project Title

Harnessing the epigenome to advance the classification and understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying hairy cell leukemia variant patients

University of California San Diego

Dr. Su is Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science in the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of California, San Diego, where she directs the Oncofertility Program. Dr. Su completed residency in obstetrics and gynecology, fellowship in reproductive endocrinology, and Master’s of Science in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as implementation science training through NCI’s Training in Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer Program. Dr. Su is a physician scientist who conducts patient oriented research on reproductive health in young cancer survivors. Through innovative observational and interventional studies, team-based science, and community engagement, Dr. Su’s studies focus on estimating reproductive risks after cancer, implementing evidence-based practices, and improving equity in reproductive health care delivery, funded by NCI, NICHD, American Cancer Society, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Recent work on health policies as an intervention to improve access to care suggest that state-level fertility preservation benefit mandates are not working as intended. This team with existing collaborations and complementary methodologic and clinical expertise will use national administrative data to estimate the impact of mandated insurance benefits on fertility preservation utilization and affordability, in order to inform future federal and state laws and regulations.

Program Name(s)

Equity in Access

Project Title

Impact of State Health Insurance Mandates on Affordability and Utilization of Fertility Preservation in Adolescent and Young Adults with Blood Cancers

Northwestern University

I began my scientific career in the Marchesi laboratories (Yale, 1982-1985) and then as an undergraduate under Don Wiley (Harvard, 1986-1988). I entered the Medical Scientist Training Program (1988-1995) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), performing doctoral research with Harold Varmus, at UCSF and the NIH. I defended my thesis at UCSF and completed medical training at Northwestern (1996-1997). I was an Internal Medicine house officer and Hematology/Oncology fellow at Univ of Chicago (UofC, 1997-2003)then stayed on as a UofC faculty member as a physician-scientist, with both research and clinical responsibilities (2003-2023).

Effective April 1, 2023, I have joined the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University as the inaugural director of the Jeff and Marianne Silver Family Blood Cancer Institute of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. I will also serve as Clinical Director of Cancer Genetics.

I derive synergy between bench research and the bedside to understand disease on a molecular level. This proposal seeks to understand how inherited DNA changes influence the development of bone marrow cancers, with the goal of developing interventions that would prevent cancers in at-risk individuals to make my job as an oncologist obsolete.

Program Name(s)

Discovery

Project Title

CHEK2 as a predisposition gene for clonal hematopoiesis and hematopoietic malignancies

University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus

Terry Fry, MD, is a professor of pediatrics, hematology and immunology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is the chair of the Gates Institute Advisory Board and holds the Charles C. Gates Endowed Chair in Regenerative Medicine. He arrived at Colorado in 2018 after serving as head of the Hematologic Malignancies Section in the Pediatric Oncology Branch at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he led efforts in cellular immunotherapy for pediatric leukemia. Prior to the NIH, Dr. Fry was chief of Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. His research focuses on the preclinical and clinical development of chimeric antigen receptor T cells for pediatric cancers. He serves on the Committee for Scientific Affairs for the American Society of Hematology, is vice chair for biology in the Cellular Therapy Committee of the Children’s Oncology Group, and was elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Program Name(s)

Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)

Project Title

A phase 1 study of anti-CD64 CAR T cells in patients with venetoclax-refractory myeloid neoplasms

University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Arun Wiita is a physician-scientist and Associate Professor in the Dept. of Laboratory Medicine and Dept. of Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Wiita’s research focuses on mass spectrometry-based proteomics, target discovery, protein engineering, and cellular engineering toward the development of novel therapies for blood cancers. Dr. Wiita also directs the UCSF Stephen and Nancy Grand Multiple Myeloma Translational Initiative (MMTI) Laboratory. Dr. Wiita is a prior recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, a Clinical Scientist Development Award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator Award, among others, and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He completed his residency in Clinical Pathology at UCSF, his MD and PhD at Columbia, with graduate training in single molecule biophysics, and undergraduate studies in Chemistry at Princeton.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Optimized, computationally engineered CD70-targeting CAR-T cells for high-risk multiple myeloma

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Research

Qian Zhang is a postdoctoral fellow in the Dr. Abdel-Wahab’s lab at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She developed synthetic introns to selectively targeting U2AF1 mutated myeloid cells. U2AF1 mutations characterize high risk forms of MDS and are also common in elderly patients with AML. She aims to optimize these synthetic introns and develop novel lipid nanoparticles delivery of the synthetic introns into mice. Qian received her Ph.D. training in the Dr. Krainer lab at Cold spring harbor laboratory, where she developed novel RNA therapeutics to target a driver mutation of a deadly pediatric brain tumor known as Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas. This work was published in Science Translational Medicine with Qian as a first author. She also contributed to the development of innovative RNA therapeutics to modulate RNA splicing in cystic fibrosis. Qian is a key coauthor for these studies that were published in papers in Nucleic Acids Research, PNAS, and Nature Communications.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Synthetic introns to target U2AF1 mutant leukemias and dissect molecular basis for mis-splicing

Rutgers University

I am a tenured scientist with combined training in metabolism, epigenetics, and how both affect human cancer. During my PhD, I focused on the molecular and genetic characterization of SIRT1 in metabolism and cancer. During my postdoc, I led highly pioneering studies published in Nature Medicine which identified the relevance of non-coding regions and cancer metabolism on the progression of NOTCH1-driven T-ALL.

Since I started my independent research program 8 years ago, I have established a very successful and productive lab focused on T-ALL. This is reflected by the multiple grants obtained, as well as by the publication of corresponding-author studies identifying novel therapies in top-tier journals such as Blood Cancer Discovery, Leukemia, Blood or Blood Neoplasia.

Here, I will develop clinical-grade KAT7 inhibitors for leukemia. My scientific productivity, together with my background in KAT7 and leukemia mouse models make me an ideal fit to lead this project, together with my co-PI.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Therapeutic exploitation of novel mouse models and metabolic interventions in leukemia

First-in-class KAT7 inhibitors for pediatric leukemia