Margaret Shipp
lymphoma biology
Margaret Shipp, MD
Boston, MA
United States
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Margaret Shipp, MD, is Chief of the Division of Hematologic Neoplasia at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on the clinical and molecular heterogeneity of the large B-cell lymphomas (LBCLs) and Hodgkin lymphomas. Dr. Shipp has led efforts to define molecular signatures of LBCLs and Hodgkin lymphomas, identify biologically distinct subsets of these diseases, and characterize associated rational treatment targets including modulators of the host anti-tumor immune response.
Program Name(s)
Translational Research Program
Project Title
Analysis and Targeting of Tumor-Associated Monocytes/Macrophages that Inhibit PD-1 Blockade
Jake Shortt
precision therapy for aggressive lymphomas
Jake Shortt, PhD
Clayton, VIC
Australia
Monash University
Professor Jake Shortt is a clinician scientist who is co-appointed by Monash Health as Director of Clinical Haematology and by Monash University as the Head of Haematology Research at the School of Clinical Sciences. Monash Health provides lymphoma services to the largest Australian healthcare network in the Australian state of Victoria. He is also an Honorary Clinical Professor at the Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne.
Professor Shortt is group leader of the 'Blood Cancer Therapeutics Laboratory' at Monash, seeking to discover and translate new lymphoma treatments to the clinic. As a clinician scientist his research covers the full translational spectrum from scientific discovery to advanced clinical trials and registry initiatives. For more than a decade his research has focussed on poor-risk lymphoid cancers, particularly those hallmarked by activation of a gene called 'MYC' which features in some of the most aggressive lymphomas.
Program Name(s)
Translational Research Program
Project Title
Exploiting escape from Y-inactivation as a synthetic dependency in MYC-driven lymphoma
Immune-Onc Therapeutics
immunotherapy, AML, CMML
Immune-Onc Therapeutics,
Palo Alto, CA
United States
TAP Partner
Immune-Onc is a private, clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel myeloid checkpoint inhibitors for cancer patients. The company aims to translate unique scientific insights in myeloid cell biology and immune inhibitory receptors to discover and develop first-in-class biotherapeutics that reverse immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment. Immune-Onc has a differentiated pipeline with a current focus on targeting the Leukocyte Immunoglobulin-Like Receptor subfamily B (LILRB) of myeloid checkpoints. Immune-Onc’s focused platform approach has led to the development of several promising therapeutics across various stages of development.
Program Name(s)
Therapy Acceleration Program
Project Title
Urvi Shah
Diet and myeloma
Urvi Shah, MD
New York, NY
United States
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Urvi Shah is an Assistant Attending in the Myeloma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology and received a Master of Science degree in Clinical and Translational Cancer Research. Her research interests include modifiable risk factors (diet, metabolism, microbiome) in cancer. She completed the first pilot nutrition trial in plasma cell disorders to date (NUTRIVENTION) and has 3 other dietary trials enrolling. Dr. Shah has been supported by career development awards (National Cancer Institute [NCI] K12, International Myeloma Society and American Society of Hematology [ASH] Scholar) and research awards (ASH CRTI, ECOG ACRIN Young Investigator Translational Research, Henry Moses, Celgene Future Leaders in Hematology, NCI Early Investigator Advancement Program and Clinical Cancer Research Early Career). She has published papers in prominent journals and has been an invited speaker and chair.
Program Name(s)
Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)
Project Title
A Decentralized Randomized High-Fiber Dietary Trial to Improve Outcomes in Newly Diagnosed Myeloma
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
Rong Lu
preleukemia, leukemia
Rong Lu, PhD
Los Angeles, CA
United States
University of Southern California
Dr. Rong Lu is the Richard N. Merkin Assistant Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, Medicine, and Gerontology at University of Southern California (tenure-track). Her lab studies hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) regulation, coordination and malfunction using systems biology and single-cell approaches. Dr. Lu has been an active researcher in the stem cell field since 2003. She received her Ph.D. training in molecular biology under the guidance of Dr. Ihor R. Lemischka at Princeton University, and her postdoctoral training in cell biology under the mentorship of Dr. Irving L. Weissman at Stanford University. After starting her own lab at USC in 2014, Dr. Lu has been studying the mechanisms underlying differences between individual HSCs, and the coordination between their differentiations. She is also investigating the heterogeneity of primary human leukemia cells, including their individual chemotherapy responses.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Project Title
Anthony Letai
improving CAR-T
Anthony Letai, MD, PhD
Boston, MA
United States
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dr. Letai is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He began his studies in apoptosis and hematologic malignancies as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Stanley Korsmeyer. He then started his own laboratory at Dana-Farber in 2005 and became an LLS Scholar in 2008. His studies in understanding how BCL-2 family members regulate the cell death pathway of apoptosis were instrumental in the translation of the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax to the clinic, where it is now FDA approved for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). His laboratory has been investigating how immune cells used in cancer immunotherapy use apoptosis pathways to kill cancer cells, and how increasing apoptosis signaling in cancer cells might benefit immunotherapy. He is also investigating how reducing apoptosis signaling in immune cells used for immunotherapy might make them work better in cancer patients.
Program Name(s)
Discovery
Project Title
Gaurav Goyal
Erdheim-Chester Disease
Gaurav Goyal, MD
Birmingham, AL
United States
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Dr. Goyal obtained his medical school diploma from Smt. N.H.L. Municipal Medical College in Ahmedabad, India, in 2011 and moved to the US to complete a residency in Internal Medicine from Creighton University Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska in 2016. He pursued a fellowship in hematology-oncology from Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota from 2016-2019. He developed a unique focus in histiocytic neoplasms, including Erdheim-Chester disease, Langerhans cell histiocytosis, and Rosai-Dorfman disease. He conducted multiple studies describing the epidemiology, treatments, and outcomes of patients with histiocytosis and led to the establishment of first of its kind multidisciplinary Histiocytosis Working Group. He has led national and international guidelines on the diagnosis and management of these rare disease entities. He was subsequently recruited to join the Hematology-Oncology division at University of Alabama at Birmingham as an Assistant Professor in 2019 where he launched the Histiocytic Disorder Survivor Study to assess long-term outcomes among individuals with histiocytic neoplasms.
Program Name(s)
Special Grants
Project Title
Grant Challen
preleukemia, leukemia
Grant Challen, PhD
St. Louis, MO
United States
Washington University in St. Louis
Dr. Challen is currently an Associate Professor in the Division of Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis). His laboratory research is at the interface of stem cell biology and blood cancer, and aims to determine how disruption of the epignenome changes the fate of HSCs and ultimately leads to the development of hematopoietic disorders. He was the first to describe how mutations in the gene DNMT3A regulates the balance of HSC self-renewal and differentiation as a first step to development of AML. His lab aims to develop mutation-specific therapies to inhibit CH clones as a mechanism of blood cancer prevention.
Dr. Challen is investigating how mutations in genes that alter the epigenome alter the function of blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), leading to a condition known as clonal hematopoiesis (CH) and predispose for future development of blood diseases such as myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), acute myeloid leukemia (AML)and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL).
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Translational Research Program
Project Title
Synergism of cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic factors in the clonal evolution of pre-malignant HSCs
Jolanta Grembecka
leukemia therapeutics
Jolanta Grembecka, PhD
Ann Arbor, MI
United States
University of Michigan
Dr. Jolanta Grembecka is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, University of Michigan. Dr. Grembecka’s research is focused on development of small molecule inhibitors of proteins involved in leukemogenesis. Her laboratory has developed the first small molecule inhibitors of the menin-MLL1 interaction as a treatment for acute leukemia, which were advanced to clinical studies in acute myeloid leukemia patients. Her laboratory is also developing new targeted therapies for hematologic cancers by blocking novel epigenetic targets, including ASH1L histone methyltransferase.
Dr. Grembecka has received PhD in Chemistry at Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland. She completed postdoctoral training in drug discovery at the University of Virginia and in 2009 started her independent position at the University of Michigan. Dr. Grembecka is a co-author on over 80 scientific publications and an inventor on 15 patents. She is LLS Scholar and ACS Research Scholar recipient.
Program Name(s)
Translational Research Program
Project Title
ASH1L degradation as a new treatment for acute leukemia
Targeted combination therapies for leukemia with NUP98 translocations
Ana Vujovic
AML
Ana Vujovic, PhD
Denver, CO
United States
University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus
Ana Vujovic is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She completed her PhD under the mentorship of Dr. Kristin Hope at the University of Toronto and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, where she studied the role of post-transcriptional regulation in hematopoietic and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) stem cells. Ana joined the laboratory of Dr. Craig T. Jordan in the Spring of 2023, where her postdoctoral studies are focused on investigating metabolic vulnerabilities in AML stem cells and in particular mechanisms that underlie the resistance of these cells to the combination therapy, Venetoclax and Azacitidine (Ven/Aza). The objective of her postdoctoral research is to identify novel therapeutic strategies to uniquely target the metabolic vulnerabilities of Ven/Aza-resistant AML stem cells with the goal of improving AML patient outcomes.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program
Project Title
Eugenio Morelli
Myeloma
Eugenio Morelli, MD
Boston, MA
United States
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Eugenio Morelli, MD, is an Instructor in Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Morelli's research interest is to decode the key oncogenic features of noncoding RNAs (ncRNA) to inform ncRNA-based therapies in multiple myeloma (MM). Dr. Morelli earned his MD degree magna cum laude in 2011 at the Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro (Catanzaro, Italy) and from 2012 to 2017 completed a clinical/research fellowship in Medical Oncology at the same Institution. In 2017, Dr. Morelli joined the Nikhil C Munshi Lab at the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA), where he has been working since then. Dr. Morelli has a demonstrated record of accomplished and productive research projects. In recognition of his research prowess, Dr. Morelli was awarded the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) Brian D Novis Award and the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center SPORE in Multiple Myeloma Career Enhancement Award.
Program Name(s)
Career Development Program