Leukemia & Lymphoma Society helps fund research grants
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The Leukemia & Lymphoma has collaborated with cancer institutions, foundations and philanthropic individuals to fund several cancer research projects.
The entities co-funded approximately $9 million worth of research, with up to an additional $8 million in funding expected over the next year.
“Since our founding in 1949, [Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS)] has invested nearly $1.3 billion to fuel groundbreaking research that has touched nearly every therapy used to treat patients with blood cancers,” Lee Greenberger, PhD, the society’s chief scientific officer, said in a press release. “But we can’t do it alone. Particularly in light of the fiscal challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic, LLS is grateful to have the partnership of these renowned foundations, centers and individuals to help us continue to deliver on our mission to find cures. This is not the time to take our foot off the accelerator when so much potential progress can be realized right now.”
The following three grants are supported in collaboration with the investigators’ research institutions:
- Michael R. Green, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, will focus on targeting CREBBP mutations to trigger an immune response among patients with follicular and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
- Jennifer Trowbridge, PhD, of The Jackson Laboratory, will study changes that occur in bone marrow due to aging, and how these alterations may contribute to leukemia development.
- Frederick Locke, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center, will evaluate novel immunotherapies — including vaccines and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy — to improve outcomes for patients with lymphoma. He also will evaluate the use of radiation combined with CAR T-cell therapy as part of a clinical trial.
The following grants will be funded by The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research:
- Therese Vu, PhD, of University of Colorado School of Medicine, will aim to develop combination therapies to treat patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
- Johanna Melo-Cardenas, PhD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, will study megakaryocytes and explore how changes in the bone marrow microenvironment contribute to disease progression in primary myelofibrosis.
- Sylvain Simon, PhD, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, will evaluate pharmaceutical agents for prevention and treatment of cytokine release syndrome.
- LLS, the Snowdome Foundation and the Leukaemia Foundation will co-fund grants for two research projects:
- Ravindra Majeti, MD, PhD, of Stanford University, and Daniel Thomas, MD, PhD, of South Australia Health and Medical Research Institute, will explore the link between the metabolism of leukemia cells and common mutations that cause the disease.
- John Pimanda, MD, PhD, of University of New South Wales, will aim to identify which patients with myelodysplastic syndrome are most likely to respond to azacitidine and determine alternatives for patients who are unlikely to respond to the drug.
LLS Children’s Initiative, in collaboration with Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research, will fund a grant to Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, to support her preclinical research to identify biological mutations that drive pediatric acute leukemia.
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