Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation Awards $7M to Advance Immunotherapy Research
Posted: Monday, May 7, 2018
As part of its $15M Immunotherapy Initiative, the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation has awarded $7 million to fund three multiple myeloma research programs. Pending a successful completion of this first phase of funding, the second phase of this initiative will translate the findings from these projects into clinical trials.
The principal investigators and their projects follow:
- David Avigan, MD, Professor of Medicine and Section Chief of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Hematologic Malignancies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, will lead the project “Combined Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) Therapy and Active Immunization,” which will focus on the development and advancement of immune therapy combinations.
- Ivan Borrello, MD, Associate Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Medical Director of the Cell Therapy Laboratory at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, will lead the project “Dissecting Immune Regulation and Dysfunction Within the Bone Marrow Microenvironment.” It seeks to understand the role a patient’s immune system and tumor bone marrow microenvironment play in disease progression.
- Ola Landgren, MD, Chief Attending Physician of the Myeloma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, is heading a project titled “Defining Optimal Tumor and Host Signatures for Immunotherapy of Myeloma.” It is a detailed characterization of the genetic, protein, and serologic features in tumors to better identify factors predictive of response to immune therapy.
