The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Awards Two Major Grants to Researchers at Harvard and Cambridge

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., July 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) today announced it has awarded two new Marshall A. Lichtman Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) grants to Frederick W. Alt, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School, and Anthony Green, M.D., Ph.D., University of Cambridge. Each SCOR is valued at $1.25 million a year for five years for a total of $6.25 million.

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The SCOR program is LLS's largest academic research grant, with total funding of more than $235 million since its inception in 2000. The SCOR program brings together teams of researchers representing different disciplines in collaborative efforts to discover new approaches to treat patients with leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Awards go to groups that best demonstrate outstanding scientific promise facilitated by the synergy that will occur from their combined efforts.

Dr. Alt's project title is "Pathogenetic Mechanisms and Therapeutic Targets in B-Cell Lymphoma," and his team's goal is to learn more about the specific ways B cell lymphomas develop and to create new targeted therapies to eliminate these malignant cells.  The team is investigating both mouse lymphoma models and clinical samples from lymphoma patients in order to learn more about the genetic abnormalities that cause these tumors to develop.  This SCOR brings together leading basic scientists and clinical investigators with complementary expertise in genetics, mouse tumor models, lymphoma cell biology, immunology, drug development and clinical investigation.

Dr. Green's project, "Genome-Wide Analysis of Drug Response in the Myeloproliferative Neoplasms," is aimed at understanding at the genomic scale how patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) respond to therapy.  Research has shown that defects in one gene, JAK2, are present in most but not all patients with MPNs, diseases that affect approximately 200,000 people in the United States. This and other molecular discoveries will help develop new approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders. This SCOR brings together three world-class institutions in the United Kingdom (University of Cambridge, Sanger Genome Institute and Addenbrookes Hospital) with a national clinical trial network.

SCOR is one of three integrated research grant programs established by LLS.  These also include the Career Development Program, which provides stipends to investigators of exceptional promise in the early stages of their careers; and the Translational Research Program, which encourages and supports outstanding research with strong promise of translating emerging biomedical knowledge into new treatments.  In addition, the Therapy Acceleration Program is designed to help move potential therapies more quickly through the development pipeline.

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 and provides free information and support services.  

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 or contact the Information Resource Center at (800) 955-4572, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. www.lls.org.

Contact: Andrea Greif
914.821.8958
[email protected]

SOURCE The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society