The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Awards Six New Research Grants Focused On Innovative New Ideas

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Oct. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Six academic investigators will receive grants from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) to support innovative ideas that that have the potential to take research in a new direction and fundamentally impact the future of blood cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The second-year grant program, called The New Idea Award, looks to identify novel research strategies that involve the exploration of untested but potentially transformative research ideas and treatment approaches. The ultimate goal is to advance treatments that significantly improve clinical outcomes, including the quality of life, for patients with blood cancers.

"The researchers we've selected have proposed approaches that are substantially different from the protocols and therapies being done today," said Lee Greenberger, Ph.D., LLS chief scientific officer. "Each of these projects has the potential to fundamentally change our understanding of blood cancers. Funding for such an unproven concept is hard to come by yet those are often the ones that go on to become major discoveries."

The researchers, who will each receive a $100,000 one-year grant, include:

Craig Crews, Ph.D. – Yale University. Project title: A novel approach for the development of anti-CML chemotherapy. In order for targeted therapies to work they must bind to the target protein long enough to inhibit the protein's cancer-causing activity. The challenge is to attain high enough levels of drug to ensure that 95% of the target protein is being blocked. Crews' lab is working toward a new approach – instead of the drug binding to the rogue protein, they are proposing a new class of drugs that would cause degradation of the cancer-causing protein.

JJ Miranda, Ph.D. – The J. David Gladstone Institutes. Project title: Identifying host-pathogen intergenome bridges during lymphoma. Persistent infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may drive the development of lymphoma.  Though it has been known that virus genomes integrate into the host genome, Miranda hypothesizes that there is a more complex structural relationship whereby the viral genome evades detection through previously undescribed long range interactions with DNA on distant sites of other chromosomes.  Characterizing these interactions may identify druggable targets to eradicate the virus and perhaps prevent EBV-mediated lymphoma formation.

Tarek Abbas, Ph.D. – University of Virginia. Project title: Stablization of cyclin D1 in S-phase as a novel therapeutic approach for mantle cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and myeloma both frequently result from the overexpression of a protein called cyclin D1. However, Abbas' lab has discovered that, paradoxically, cyclin D1 is actually reduced during a certain phase of DNA formation. Thus the lab has found that inactivating the pathway that reduces cyclin D1 during the DNA synthesis phase can actually inhibit the proliferation of cells. Their project will test the hypothesis that this novel approach can be used to inhibit the proliferation of MCL and myeloma cancer cells.

Adam Goldfarb, M.D., Ph.D. – University of Virginia. Project title: Novel application of imaging cytometry in diagnosis of unexplained cytopenias. Goldfarb's team will test the application of a newly emerging technology – imaging cytometry – a less invasive and more specific procedure than the current standard to more accurately diagnose myelodysplastic syndromes in elderly patients who present with unexplained chronic cytopenias – persistent low blood counts.

Matthias Stephan, M.D., Ph.D. – Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Project title: In situ generation of leukemia-specific T cells "on demand." Stephan's lab is working on a novel approach to reprogram a patient's immune system to fight leukemia. The team has developed a new nanoparticle that can be used to reprogram a patient's immune T cells to selectively kill cancer cells.  The approach is currently being tested in mice with promising results.

Peter Gordon, M.D.  – Regents of the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Project title: Bifunctional drug-DNA conjugated gold nanoparticles for the treatment of hematological malignancies. Gordon's lab is applying existing technologies in a novel fashion – using bifunctional gold nanoparticles to deliver a combination of two therapies – one that inhibits the cancer-causing gene mRNA, and the other, an FDA approved drug that inhibits specific enzymes called kinases found in many blood cancers. The gold nanoparticle keeps the two therapies sequestered, unless they are in a cell containing the cancer-causing gene mRNA, at which point, the therapies are activated.  Thus, this activation occurs only in the cancer cells, and should spare normal cells from any toxic side effects.

About The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society ® (LLS) is the world's largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancer. The LLS mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. LLS funds lifesaving blood cancer research around the world, provides free information and support services, and is the voice for all blood cancer patients seeking access to quality, affordable, coordinated care.

Founded in 1949 and headquartered in White Plains, NY, LLS has chapters throughout the United States and Canada. To learn more, visit www.LLS.org. Patients should contact the Information Resource Center at (800) 955-4572, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET.

Contact: Andrea Greif
(914) 821-8958
[email protected]

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SOURCE The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

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