Who We Fund

Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Christopher Hergott, M.D., Ph.D. is a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Associate Pathologist in hematopathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of Rochester and his medical and graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed residency (and chief residency) in Clinical Pathology and a clinical fellowship in Hematopathology at BWH before beginning his postdoctoral research training in the laboratory of Dr. Benjamin Ebert at DFCI. Christopher's research interests lie at the intersection of inflammation and hematopoiesis, with a particular focus on clonal hematopoiesis and its progression to myeloid malignancies. In his free time, Christopher enjoys playing guitar, reading, and travelling.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Defining the role of IL-17A in propelling clonal cytopenia of undetermined significance

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

I am an Assistant Professor at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. My areas of research interest include drug development and signaling with focus on small GTPases. My research is both basic and translational.

My research efforts encompass several methodologies, including structural biology, biophysical and biochemical studies, cellular functional assays, and ultimately, identifying small molecule compounds that bind to and modulate GTPase signaling in in vivo pre-clinical models of cancer.

RAC GTPases are key regulators of cell growth. By reorganizing the actin cytoskeleton, RAC plays a key role in cancer cell metastasis. It is also involved in mechanisms of resistance to therapies. My lab's goal is to inhibit RAC in leukemia by understanding the molecular mechanisms driving its hyperactivity.

One of my lab’s groundbreaking discoveries is the identification of a small molecule inhibitor of VAV3, a RAC activator. Current research studies the efficacy of VAV3 inhibition in models of relapsed/recurrent leukemia.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Overcoming RAS-driven Mechanisms of Resistance in Leukemia

University of Fribourg

Nicola Vannini after his MSc degree in Biological Sciences obtained at the University of Parma, moved to La Jolla (CA) where he worked for two years at the Burnham Institute in the laboratory of Prof. John C. Reed studying the metabolic basis of cardiac aging. He completed his PhD at the National Institute for Cancer Research in Genova (Italy) under the supervision of Prof. Adriana Albini, where he worked on nutritional interventions to prevent tumor progression. After his PhD he moved to EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland) in the laboratory directed by Prof. Matthias Lütolf and Prof. Olaia Naveiras at the EPFL, where he developed targeted metabolic interventions to boost hematopoietic recovery.

Since March 2016 Nicola Vannini is group leader at the Ludwig Cancer Institute at the University of Lausanne . His primary research goals are the understanding of metabolic changes occurring during aging in the hematopoietic and immune compartments and their impact on cancer immunotherapy.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Mitochondrial reprogramming to restore age-driven dysfunction in T cell and boost CAR-T cell therapy

Weill Cornell Medicine

Dr. Wendy Béguelin is a basic and translational research scientist working in the field of lymphoma epigenetics. She obtained her degree of Biology at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she received extensive training in the investigation of cell biology and signal transduction with studies on epigenetic gene regulation and transcription factor binding. As a postdoctoral scientist at Weill Cornell Medical College, under the mentorship of Prof. Ari Melnick she has identified novel epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms that contribute to B-cell differentiation and lymphomagenesis. She has studied the biological and transcriptional mechanisms of action of Polycomb proteins in germinal center B-cells and lymphomas derived from germinal centers. As Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Béguelin is committed to a career in basic/translational cancer research, bringing new ideas into the field of epigenetic control of lymphomagenesis and making discoveries that can be translated from the diagnostic and therapeutic standpoints.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Discovery and therapeutic targeting of novel mechanisms driving Double Hit Lymphomas

Washington University in St. Louis

Stefan Tarnawsky, M.D.; Ph.D. is a Hematology/Oncology fellow and junior physician scientist at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, MO. His research focus is understanding the origin of myeloid blood cancers. His graduate work at Indiana University with Dr. Merv Yoder and Dr. Rebecca Chan focused on the prenatal origin of childhood blood cancers. This work led to a F30 award from the NHLBI and three first-author research publications, including one in the Journal of Clinical Investigations. Currently, under the mentorship of Dr. Matt Walter, M.D., Stefan studies how splicing factor gene mutations dysregulate blood cell growth. He thereby aims to identify novel therapies for the ~50% of myelodysplastic syndrome patients and ~20% of acute myeloid leukemia patients that have these mutations. His career goal is to continue this research focus as an independent investigator studying and treating blood cancer patients at an academic medical center.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

The Role of TP53 in Mutant U2AF1 Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Mayo Clinic, Rochester

Grzegorz (Greg) Nowakowski, M.D., is a consultant and a Professor of Oncology and Medicine, Division of Hematology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester,Minnesota, where he also serves as the Aggressive B-cell Lymphoma Program Director, the Chairman of Education,and an Advanced Hematology Fellowship Program Director. Dr. Nowakowski received his MD from the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland. He completed his internal medicine residency at Yale University Medical School -Norwalk Hospital, Norwalk, Connecticut and his fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Dr Nowakowski joined the Mayo Clinic Lymphoma Group in 2006 as a Mayo Foundation Scholar.Heis an alumnus of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Clinical Research Training Institute and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Leadership Development Program. Dr. Nowakowski’s research focuses on the molecular classification and biology of lymphoproliferative disorders,new approaches to clinical trial design and novel therapies for lymphoma and hematological disorders. Heis an investigator in University of Iowa/Mayo Clinic Lymphoma Specialized Center of Research Excellence program, where he leads career enhancement program. Dr. Nowakowski has authored over 200 articles and numerous book chapters. Dr.Nowakowski serves as a principal investigator of multiple investigator-initiated and cooperative group clinical trials(ECOG, Alliance) and industry studies and serves and a member of ECOG Lymphoma Core Committee. Dr.Nowakowski also chairs the Lymphoma Committee and Hematological Malignancy Program in the Academic and Community Cancer Research United (ACCRU) network. He currently serves as a vice Chair of ASH Clinical Trial Innovation Subcommittee chair of ASCO Research Community Forum and ASCO Clinical Trial Access and Participation Taskforce. Dr. Nowakowski has served as Voting Member of the Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Program Name(s)

IMPACT

Project Title

REACH: Recruitment Expansion through community Access to Clinical trials in Hematologic malignancies

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Dr. Shannon Maude is a pediatric oncologist and clinical trialist in the Cancer Immunotherapy Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Maude received her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed her residency in pediatrics as well as fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Maude developed the Cancer Immunotherapy and BMT Fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and currently serves as a Medical Director in the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Maude is a member of the Children’s Oncology Group ALL committee and leads investigator-initiated and international multi-center clinical trials of engineered T cell therapies for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Improving CAR T-cell Therapy Efficacy in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia by Optimizing Design and Placement

Weill Cornell Medicine

Ramon Massoni-Badosa, PhD is a graduate of Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona in 2023, and his PhD focused on applying single-cell genomics technologies to benchmark the effect of sample preservation in single-cell RNA-seq data (Massoni-Badosa R. Genome Biol 2020), create a single-cell-driven atlas of cell types in human tonsils (Massoni-Badosa R., Immunity in press), and track the clonal evolution of CLL to Richter's syndrome (Nadeu,* Royo,* Massoni-Badosa*, Playa-Albinyana*, Garcia-Torre* Nat Med 2022). As highlighted in these three publications, he has gained extensive experience in large-scale single-cell multi-omics projects, as well as in combining computational and biological knowledge to gain biological and clinical insights. During his postdoc in the ten Hacken and Landau labs, Ramon will leverage his expertise to improve the mechanistic understanding of Richter’s syndrome, with the ultimate goal of identifying new targets to treat this incurable disease.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Uncovering MGA-driven epigenetic reprogramming in Richter's syndrome

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Anita Kumar, MD is an Associate Attending at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she specializes in mantle cell lymphoma. Dr. Kumar leads the Memorial Sloan Kettering mantle cell lymphoma research program. She serves as a principal investigator for a number of clinical trials studying novel therapies for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma and novel clinical applications of minimal residual disease assessment. She completed her undergraduate studies in Biochemical Sciences at Harvard College and medical school at Northwestern University. She then completed her internship and residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and subsequently completed her hematology/oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Novel Immunotherapy Combinations in Relapsed, Refractory Mantle Cell Lymphoma

MD Anderson Cancer Center

Dai Chihara, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. Dr. Chihara received his MD degree from Kobe University in Japan, and completed clinical training in hematology and oncology both in Japan and the US. Dr. Chihara focuses on clinical research of lymphoma for aggressive and indolent B-cell lymphomas, and has led multiple research projects utilizing clinical data and population-based cancer registry data to identify high risk populations with poor outcomes. Dr. Chihara is currently working on discovering novel trial design and biomarkers in lymphoma through investigator initiated clinical trials at MD Anderson Cancer Center to address unmet needs for patients. Dr. Chihara has received many awards including ones from Lymphoma Research Foundation, American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Biomarker and Risk Tailored Treatment to Improve Outcomes in Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma

Medical College of Wisconsin

Siegfried Janz, MD, DSc, Professor and William G. Schuett, Jr., Multiple Myeloma Endowed Chair directs translational myeloma research at the Division of Hematology, Oncology & Bone Marrow Transplantation, Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee. After obtaining his medical degree and board certification in Clinical Immunology from Leipzig University Medical School, Germany, he received advanced training in genetic and biological pathways of myeloma development at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland. In 2018 he relocated his laboratory to Milwaukee, where he works in close association with his clinical colleagues to enhance our understanding of the natural history of myeloma and improve myeloma treatment and outcomes. His ongoing efforts concentrate on the design and testing of novel immunotherapies that rely on patient-derived T lymphocytes to seek out and kill myeloma.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Improving outcomes of multiple myeloma using TGF-beta resistant BCMA-targeted CAR T cells

Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Dr. Erica Phillips is the Jack Fishman Professor of Cancer Prevention at Weill Cornell. She as served as the co-director for the BRIDGE program alongside Dr Leonard since the project's inception. Thus, she is equally knowledgeable about the programs accomplishments to date. The programmatic goals during this final funding year remain primarily the same, with an additional goal of formulating a new collaboration with the hematology/ oncology division at NYU Langone Hospital—Brooklyn led by Dr Oscar Lahoud. Dr Phillips will resume the role of the primary grantee/ principal investigator effective June 1, 2025 as Dr Leonard departs Weill Cornell. He will remain an adjunct faculty member and involved in the project.

Program Name(s)

IMPACT

Project Title

BRIDGE (Blood cancer Research Initiative Developing Greater Engagement) with community patients