Who We Fund

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Dr. Magee directs the pediatric leukemia and lymphoma program at Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Washington University and then completed a pediatrics residency and hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Michigan. He conducted postdoctoral research with Dr. Sean Morrison (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) at the University of Michigan and UT-Southwestern. Dr. Magee’s work focuses on causes and treatments for childhood acute myeloid leukemia. He has published several papers in high impact journals investigating interactions between genes that regulate normal childhood blood development and mutations that cause leukemia, with the goal of understanding why childhood leukemias respond differently to treatment than adult leukemias. He is also investigating changes in blood forming stem cells that lead to leukemia when children receive chemotherapy for other tumors, such as lymphomas or solid tumors.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Neonatal origins of pediatric AML

University of Miami

I graduated summa cum laude from Bogazici University and went on to complete my Ph.D. at the University of Miami, where I focused on the nanoarchitectonics of carbon-based nanomaterials for cancer nanomedicine. My doctoral research involved developing targeted drug delivery systems, resulting in five first-author publications and a total of 15 papers with over 330 citations. Currently, as a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Nimer’s lab, I am investigating transcriptional regulation in normal and malignant hematopoiesis, with a focus on identifying and targeting epigenetic regulators like PRMTs and lysine acetyltransferases in AML and MDS.

My extensive background in cancer nanomedicine, molecular biology, and medicinal chemistry has equipped me with a strong foundation to dissect the underlying biochemical mechanisms of AML. This work aligns with my long-term goal of translating epigenetic insights into therapeutic interventions for hematologic cancers.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

The PRMT5-p53-DUSP6 Axis: Integral Regulators of Cytokine Signaling in Hematopoietic Cells and AML Oncogenesis

Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network

Tak W. Mak is an international leader in cancer and immunology research. He is best known for his cloning of the human T cell receptor in 1984, which led to the CAR-T therapies now approved for leukemias/lymphomas. His lab also generated numerous genetically modified mouse strains to identify key factors in immune disorders and cancers. His group’s demonstration that CTLA4 negatively regulates T cell activation paved the way for checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. Most recently, his team showed that T and B cells produce acetylcholine in a manner influencing tumorigenesis and autoimmunity. On the biotech front, Dr. Mak co-founded Agios Pharmaceuticals, which produced two IDH inhibitors that are now FDA-approved for treatment of AML. The Mak team has also developed two novel agents targeting aneuploid cancer cells. These agents have shown promise in phase 2 clinical trials. Dr. Mak has published >950 papers, holds 20 patents, and has received over 35 national and international awards.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Project Title

The Immune Niche in the Development of Hematological Malignancies and Implications for Novel Therapy

City of Hope National Medical Center

Dr. Siddiqi is an associate professor in the Department of Hematology/Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and Director of the chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) program at COH. As an active member of the Toni Stephenson Lymphoma Center and the Immunotherapy Center at COH, she has been the institutional and, for some studies, national principal investigator of many phase 1, 2 and 3 clinical trials involving novel targeted therapies and cellular therapeutics such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells in CLL and non-Hodgkin lymphomas. She works closely with Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP), cooperative groups, and pharmaceutical companies on important clinical trials in order to bring novel, potentially lifesaving, therapeutics to our patients. As of June 1, 2021, she will be the Lymphoma Medical Director at the Irvine campus, set up open August 2022, which puts her in an ideal position to open impactful hematology clinical trials at CAN sites, starting with Orange county.

Program Name(s)

IMPACT

Project Title

Establishing Hematology Clinical Trial Hubs within the City of Hope Community and Affiliate Network

Baylor College of Medicine

Dr. Rouce is a pediatric oncologist and physician scientist whose clinical research focuses on difficult-to-treat blood cancers, specifically how to harness the immune system to attack them. She has spent the past 12 years in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Texas Children’s Hospital leading a research program translating genetically engineered immune cells to first-in-human immunotherapy trials. She has significant experience in every aspect of clinical trial development and in addition to serving as principal investigator on CAR-T trials for blood cancers, has served as Project Leader for projects for the NIH Lymphoma SPORE, LLS Specialized Center of Research, and Stand Up to Cancer. She leads health equity and disparities initiatives locally and nationally and is dedicated to addressing access barriers to novel cancer clinical trials for children, adolescents/young adults, underrepresented minorities, patients with limited resources and those with geographic constraints.

Program Name(s)

Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)

Project Title

Novel CD7 CAR T-cells for refractory T-cell malignancies affecting pediatric and AYA patients

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

I am a hematologist/oncologist, Director of the MSK Center for Hematologic Malignancies at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and a Member of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at MSK. My clinical expertise is in myeloid malignancies, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and rare blood cancers including hairy cell leukemia, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, and histiocytoses. My research is focused on understanding the genetic alterations in patients with these cancers. One of our main areas of interest is understanding the role of mutations in RNA splicing factors and developing means to target cells with these mutations therapeutically.  

Program Name(s)

Special Grants

Project Title

Developing novel therapeutic approaches for classical and variant 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

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

A phase 2 study of Bexmarilimab, an anti-Clever1 monoclonal antibody, in combination with azacitidine in patients with high-risk MDS

Columbia University Medical Center

Dr. Doulatov is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington. 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 Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Christopher Flowers, MD, MS, FASCO is Professor and Chair of the UT MD Anderson Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma. In 2020, he also became the Division Head ad interim for the Division of Cancer Medicine. Dr. Flowers will serve as the LLS IMPACT overall PI. As Chair of the ASCO Health Disparities Committee, Dr. Flowers co-authored the AACR/ACS/ASCO/NCI position statement -Charting the Future for Cancer Disparities Research. He has held NCI and V Foundation grants to investigate the biology of racial disparities in lymphoma. He is an internationally recognized expert in lymphoma clinical and outcomes research and leads the Lymphoma Integrated Network for Access to Clinical trials for Under-represented Populations (LINCT-UP), a partnership with MCC and the Lyndon B. Johnson County Hospital in Houston to increase minority clinical trial participation at these sites.

Program Name(s)

IMPACT

Project Title

Research Infrastructure to Promote Enrollment of Underserved Patients on Clinical Trials

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

I am a clinical-translational researcher focusing on new treatments for lymphomas with a particular focus on T-cell/cutaneous lymphomas. Since entering the field of hematology/oncology, I have been drawn to the study of lymphoma and the care of patients facing lymphoma given how varied these conditions are and the major unmet needs that exist. In my clinical practice, I see patients and caregivers navigating these diseases, treatments, and side effects, and this stimulates me to pursue advancements in my research endeavors. My overarching goals are to bridge laboratory investigations with work done in clinical trials towards ultimately improving and refining our therapeutic approaches for these challenging diseases.

Program Name(s)

Academic Clinical Trials Program (ACT)

Project Title

Targeting mutant IDH2 in angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma

Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Liling Wan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She received a B.S. in Biological Sciences and Biotechnology from Tsinghua University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University. She conducted postdoctoral research at Rockefeller University where she studied chromatin regulators in cancer. The Wan lab studies basic gene regulatory mechanisms and how these mechanisms are dysregulated in cancer, with the goal of harnessing these insights for therapeutics. Her research has revealed how chromatin “reader” proteins impact gene regulation in cancer such as acute myeloid leukemia and led to early drug development efforts targeting these mechanisms. Dr. Wan has been recognized for her innovative and impactful research through numerous awards including AACR NextGen Star, NIH Pathway to Independence Award, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, and was recently named a Pew-Stewart Scholar, V Foundation Scholar, and ASH Scholar.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Epigenetic Mechanisms in Acute Myeloid Leukemia