WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Oct. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society today announced it has awarded three new Marshall A. Lichtman Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) grants, the Society’s most ambitious research initiative, bringing the program’s total funding to $172 million since its inception in 2000. The Society will also renew one SCOR.
All of the SCOR recipients will receive $1.25 million per year for five years, for a total of $6.25 million.
The innovative SCOR program brings together teams of researchers representing different disciplines in a collaborative effort to discover new approaches to treat patients with leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Awards go to those groups that best demonstrate outstanding scientific promise facilitated by the synergy that will occur from their combined efforts.
“This year’s SCOR recipients consist of teams of investigators undertaking cutting-edge research,” said Louis DeGennaro, Ph.D., the Society’s chief scientific officer. “Their work will lead to a better understanding of the root causes of blood cancer and the development of new immunotherapies and novel drugs that can target the genetic abnormalities that lead to cancer. These grants represent an impressive addition of outstanding scientists and scientific goals to the SCOR program.”
Dr. Kwak’s research interests are in tumor immunology, cancer vaccines, adoptive T-cell therapy, lymphoma and myeloma. Based on his experience and success in developing a vaccine for lymphoma, now in late stage clinical trials, he is expanding his research to benefit leukemia and myeloma patients. This new SCOR will support his efforts to study regulatory T-cells and dendritic immune cells to develop immunotherapies to benefit patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and myeloma. Two of the projects in the SCOR have identified antigens and proteins that may prove to be effective targets for immunotherapy. Dr. Kwak’s SCOR includes two other scientific projects focused on making vaccines more effective, supported by three core laboratories, all at M.D. Anderson.
Jon C. Aster, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s
Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston;
SCOR Title: “Targeting the Notch Pathway”
The Notch1 protein plays a critical role in how stem cells mature and differentiate. But when the Notch1 protein behaves abnormally it can cause cancer. Dr. Aster’s SCOR consists of four different projects, two of which are using complementary approaches to identify and test antibodies and small molecule drugs that selectively inhibit Notch1 activity in T-ALL. A third group will identify small molecules that cooperate with Notch pathway inhibitors to prevent the growth of T-ALL cells, while the fourth is studying what happens at the cellular level to make Notch1 cause bone marrow stem cells to transform into T-ALL. Dr. Aster’s SCOR consists of researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Columbia University; and the University of Pennsylvania.
The work of Dr. Licht’s team is based on a cutting-edge area of science known as epigenetics, which refers to changes in gene activities that do not involve the mutation or alteration of the DNA sequence, but are due to chemical alterations in chromatin, the complex of proteins and DNA found in the nucleus of the cell. Like genetic mutations, scientists now know that epigenetic abnormalities can cause cancer. Dr. Licht’s team is studying how the mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) protein causes chromatin aberrations that lead to acute leukemia, and is trying to develop drugs that inhibit MLL protein’s cancer-causing activity. The team is also studying how the MMSET protein, another epigenetic regulator that is abnormally expressed in a significant fraction of multiple myeloma cases, leads to abnormal gene expression and disease. The team will also explore how epigenetic alterations play a role in acute human acute myeloid leukemia through comprehensive analysis of gene expression and epigenetic profiles of primary leukemia specimens. Dr. Licht’s SCOR consists of researchers from Northwestern, the University of Michigan, Rockefeller University, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
In addition to the three new Centers, the Society has renewed the SCOR led by Irwin Bernstein, M.D., head of pediatric oncology research, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle. His SCOR will continue its work on developing less toxic and more effective immune-based therapies for treating advanced leukemia and lymphoma.
SCOR is one of three integrated research programs established by the Society. The Career Development Program provides stipends to investigators of exceptional promise in the early stages of their careers, and the Translational Research Program encourages and supports outstanding investigative research that shows strong promise of translating emerging biomedical knowledge into new treatments.
About The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, headquartered in White Plains, NY, with 68 chapters in the United States and Canada, is the world’s largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services. The Society’s mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. Since its founding in 1949, the Society has invested more than $550 million in research specifically targeting leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Last year alone, the Society made 5.1 million contacts with patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals.
For more information about blood cancer, visit www.LLS.org or call the Society’s Information Resource Center (IRC), a call center staffed by master’s level social workers, nurses and health educators who provide information, support and resources to patients and their families and caregivers. IRC information specialists are available at (800) 955-4572, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.
andrea.greif@lls.org
CONTACT: Andrea Greif, +1-914-821-8958, andrea.greif@lls.org of The
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Web site: http://www.LLS.org//
