Who We Fund

University of Florida

I am a postdoctoral research trainee at the University of Florida Health Cancer Center (UFHCC). I received a Ph.D. in Comparative Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. My graduate research focused on the use of gene editing functional screens to study a variety of cellular processes including nutrient uptake and response to toxic substances. For my postdoctoral training, I decided to study hematologic malignancies. I joined the Laboratory of Dr. Jonathan Licht at UFHCC where I started to investigate the molecular and epigenetic mechanisms underlying pathogenesis of Multiple Myeloma (MM), a cancer of plasma cells that remains incurable. My current research focuses on identification of vulnerabilities associated with recurrent genetic lesions in MM. As most MM patients ultimately relapse by developing resistance to existing therapies, the ultimate goal of my work is to identify novel therapeutic targets to reverse drug tolerance and improve therapeutic outcomes.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Investigating the Role of Adenylate Kinase 2 in Multiple Myeloma

University of Iceland

Professor Sigurður Yngvi Kristinsson is currently consolidating his position as one of the leading researchers world-wide in the field of multiple myeloma, its precursors, its epidemiology, progression, and treatment. This has been the main thrust of his scientific and clinical efforts from the time he defended his thesis on monoclonal gammopathies at the Karolinska Institutet in 2009. In 2012 he became the youngest full professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Iceland and he is a consultant at Landspitali University Hospital. He designed and leads the largest myeloma screening study in the world, the iStopMM project in which over 80,000 individuals provided informed consent. His current research group includes 7 PhD-students, three postdocs, a lab with 4 biologists, 6 research nurses, three statisticians/data manager, and five support staff. He is an author of more than 110 scientific papers including the current guidelines for myeloma treatment and follow up and has an h-index of 57.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Early Detection and Intervention in Smoldering Multiple Myeloma: population-based screening and treatment; Edit-SMM

Emory University

Dr Madhav Dhodapkar is the director of Winship Center for Cancer Immunology, Anise McDaniel Brock Chair, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Cancer Innovation and Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology in the Emory School of Medicine. He also co-leads the cancer immunology program at Winship Cancer Institute. Prior to moving to Emory in 2018, Dhodapkar served as chief of hematology, the Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Medicine (Hematology), and professor of immunobiology at Yale University School of Medicine. An expert in cancer immunology, he also was co-director of the Cancer Immunology Program within the Yale Cancer Center. Dr Dhodapkar’s research focuses on how the immune system regulates the progression from precursor lesions to cancer as well as immune-biology of cancer microenvironment. He is a prior recipient of several awards including the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award and the NCI Outstanding Investigator Award.

Program Name(s)

Specialized Center of Research Program

Project Title

Improving targeted adoptive cell therapy of myeloma

Emory University

I am a cancer biologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University School of Medicine. I am a recipient of the Lexie Clayton Impact Award from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. My research focus includes understanding how metabolic states regulate specific cancer hallmarks such as the evasion of cell death; proliferation and growth; and invasion and metastasis to identify targetable metabolic vulnerabilities. We have an interest in investigating how mitochondrial metabolism impacts multiple myeloma therapy efficacy and more recently are examining how the bone marrow niche is regulated by neural signaling. My research lab comprised of talented scientist trainees, who in collaboration with the Winship team of multiple myeloma physicians and scientists are endeavoring to ask provocative and innovative questions for curing multiple myeloma.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Deciphering the metabolic basis for t(11;14) multiple myeloma venetoclax sensitivity

Investigating anti-neoplastic effects of beta blockers in multiple myeloma

University of Calgary

Dr Bahlis is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary in the division of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation and the Charbonneau Cancer Research Institute. Dr Bahlis received his medical degree in 1995 from St Joseph University in Beirut. He then completed his internal Medicine residency at the State University of New York followed by a Hematology-Oncology fellowship and a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer biology at the University of Miami. Dr Bahlis’ clinical and laboratory research focus on the study of plasma cell dyscrasia, with particular interest in multiple myeloma genomics and the development of novel therapeutics. He has received several awards and research funding from numerous agencies including the ASCO young investigator award, the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada, Alberta Cancer Foundation, the Terry Fox Foundations and the Canadian Institute of Health and Research (CIHR).

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Development of a novel BCL2L1 armored CAR T-cell and a tumor-immune interactome in multiple myeloma

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

Fondazione Centro San Raffaele

Dr. Matteo Bellone obtained an M.D. degree (with honors) and was Board Certified in Allergology and Clinical Immunology at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. He had a 3-year post-doctoral training at the University of Minnesota working on autoimmunity with Bianca Conti-Fine. Since the early nineties he has been investigating interactions between cancer and immune cells with discoveries leading to several clinical outputs. He is Head of the Cellular Immunology Unit at Ospedale San Raffaele (Milan, Italy), where he also practices as Clinical Immunologist. He is adjunct professor of Immunology at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Associate Editor at Frontiers in Immunology and Frontiers in Oncology, and member of several boards serving scientific journals and charities. He is Secretary and Treasurer of the Network Italiano per la BioTerapia dei Tumori (NIBIT), Council Member of the European Network for Cancer Immunotherapy (ENCI), and member of the SIICA, and the AACR.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Gut microbiota modulation to prevent progression of smoldering multiple myeloma to active disease

Universidad de Navarra

Dr Bruno Paiva, PharmD, PhD, is a research fellow of the Departments of Haematology and Immunology at the Clinica Universidad de Navarra and CIMA, Pamplona, Spain. He is also the Director of the Flow Cytometry Core of the University of Navarra.   Dr Paiva’s main area of expertise is the multidimensional flow cytometry analysis of haematological malignancies. His research focuses on immunogenomics to improve differential diagnosis, risk stratification, and monitoring of patients with monoclonal gammopathies and myeloid malignancies. He is an author or co-author of hundreds of publications in peer-reviewed journals, and has been recognized with numerous awards.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Systematic multiomic profiling of tumor and immune cells for non invasive detection of early myeloma

Maine Medical Center

Dr. Michaela Reagan is a Faculty Scientist II at the MaineHealth Institute for Research and an Associate Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. She received her B.S. in general Engineering from Harvey Mudd College (2006) and Ph.D. from Tufts University in Biomedical Engineering in the field of breast cancer bone metastasis (2011). She then performed her post-doctoral research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Irene Ghobrial (2011-2015). Dr. Reagan is a member of the Finance Committee of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) and is the past chair of the ASBMR’s Women’s Committee. Since 2015, she has led innovative, transdisciplinary, basic and translational research in the Reagan Laboratory at MaineHealth with the goal of identifying cancer vulnerabilities that can lead to new treatments or cures for multiple myeloma (MM) patients. Her unique research is focused on the interactions between obesity, adipocytes and myeloma cells.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

Multiple Myeloma Support from the Microenvironment: Bone Marrow Adipocytes and the Fatty Acid Binding Proteins

Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope

Jianhua Yu, PhD, is a Professor and Founding Director of the Natural Killer (NK) Cell Research Program at City of Hope. Dr. Yu is internationally recognized for his fundamental contributions in understanding NK cell biology. Dr. Yu published pioneer studies on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) NK cells as early as 2013. Dr. Yu’s team developed a process to engineer NK cells including those possessing a CAR for “off-the-shelf” clinical use. Dr. Yu also makes significant contributions to oncolytic virotherapy and conducts CAR-T cell research. Dr. Yu holds over 20 patents (awarded or pending) on his research that are highly applicable to the clinic, some of which are licensed to pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Yu has over 200 peer-reviewed publications with nearly 14,000 citations to date, notably senior-author ones on original studies in high-impact journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Nature Immunology, Cancer Discovery, Immunity, etc. Dr. Yu was a scholar of LLS and ACS and the recipient of the Jack Latham Innovative Research Award from the National Blood Foundation.

Program Name(s)

Career Development Program

Project Title

All-in-one for myeloma: a single therapy to combine CAR T cells and bispecific antibodies to engage both innate and adaptive immune responses

Columbia University Medical Center

I’m a Research Scientist at Columbia University Multiple Myeloma Program. I have over 20 years of research experience, especially with profound expertise in pharmaceutical biochemistry and drug development in multiple myeloma. I received my Ph.D. degree in Pharmacology and Chemistry of Peptides in 2005. After that, I did my postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and have focused on multiple myeloma drug development since then. My current research aims to identify the druggable targets and develop therapeutic approaches for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma-carrying RAS mutation. My work has been awarded by the International Myeloma Foundation Brian D. Novis Research Grant, the International Myeloma Society, and the Paula and Rodger Riney Foundation Translational Research Award. My research has also resulted in over 18 peer-reviewed articles in top journals such as JCI, Blood, and Leukemia.

Program Name(s)

Translational Research Program

Project Title

Targeting GCK as a novel and selective therapeutic strategy against RAS mutated Multiple Myeloma

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