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The Society Pages
Remembering Lawrence B. Gardner
Lawrence Gardner, MD
Lawrence B. Gardner, MD, an assistant professor of medicine and
pharmacology at New York University (NYU) Langone Health, died on
March 27 at age 52.
Dr. Gardner graduated from the Yale University School of Medi-
cine and completed his fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Be-
ginning in 2011, he served as the program director of the hematology
and medical oncology fellowship at NYU Langone Health, where he
St. Baldrick’s Foundation
Provides Funding for Pediatric
Cancer Research
Alex Huang MD, PhD,
and Yamilet Huerta, MD,
of Case Western Reserve
University School of
Medicine, were awarded
$186,405 in grants
from the St. Baldrick’s
Alex Huang, MD, PhD
Foundation to conduct
pediatric cancer research.
Dr. Huang, professor
of pediatrics at Case
Western and co-leader
of the Hematopoietic
and Immune Cancer Biol-
Yamilet Huerta, MD
ogy Program of the Case
Comprehensive Cancer
Center, received funding support for two
students conducting pediatric oncology
research projects in his laboratory through
the foundation’s 2018 Summer Fellowship.
Dr. Huerta, a pediatric hematology/
oncology fellow at University Hospitals’
Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital and a
member of Dr. Huang’s laboratory, received a
grant to fund research on the use of targeted
immunotherapy to treat acute myeloid
leukemia (AML) in future clinical trials.
Source: Case Western Reserve University news release, April 2, 2018.
American Cancer Society
Grants More Than $47 Million
for Cancer Research Funding
The American Cancer Society (ACS) announced
funding for 110 grants to researchers at 72 U.S.
institutions, totaling $47,624,000. The grants
will go into effect July 1.
Of the research projects receiving fund-
ing, the following focus on hematology:
• Owen A. O’Connor, MD, PhD
Columbia University, New York
Dr. O’Connor is working to move
peripheral T-cell lymphomas to the
forefront of translational cancer
medicine. His lab invented and/or
developed two of the three drugs
approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration for this disease.
ASHClinicalNews.org
• Mo Motamedi, PhD
Massachusetts General Hospital,
Boston
Dr. Motamedi’s research focuses on
two challenges in cancer treatment:
resistance to chemotherapy and disease
recurrence. His lab will focus on the ob-
servation that a small number of non-
dividing cancer cells originating from the
primary tumor disperse throughout the
body and remain in quiescence.
• Catherine C. Smith, MD
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Smith aims to identify genes that
lead to resistance to targeted therapies
for AML with FLT3 mutations. Her team
hopes to identify mutations that cause
FLT3 resistance and identify strategies
to overcome this.
• Courtney E. Sullivan, MSN
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Ms. Sullivan is developing measures
of nursing quality and its influence on
childhood-cancer outcomes worldwide.
These global indicators could allow
hospitals to collect information about
nursing care and enhance nursing
quality and outcomes for children, with
the hopes of contributing to improving
childhood-cancer survival.
Source: American Cancer Society press release, April 2, 2018.
Scripps Research Institute
Receives NCI Funding for CLL
Research
Christoph Rader, PhD,
associate professor at
The Scripps Research
Institute in Florida,
received a $2.875 million,
five-year grant from the
National Cancer Institute
Christoph Raider, PhD
to develop antibody-drug
conjugates for the treatment of chronic
lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
“We want to attack the cancer with-
out harming healthy cells and tissues,”
said Dr. Rader. “To do this, we attach a
highly potent drug to an antibody and
then use the antibody to lead the drug
(1966-2018)
“consistently emphasized the subspecialty research and clinical training components
of the program,” according to the institution. He also ran the Gardner Lab and received
multiple teaching awards from the fellows at NYU Langone Health.
Dr. Gardner’s wife, Katie Sanders, died in January 2018. The Gardners are survived
by their daughter Evie.
Source: The New York Times, April 10, 2018.
payload to the cellular target.”
Dr. Rader’s team discovered a binding
site on the surface of CLL lymphocytes –
FCMR – which pulls antibodies into the
cells. “This particular target is selectively
expressed in CLL,” said Dr. Rader. His
team includes Hans Renata, PhD, assis-
tant professor, and William Roush, PhD,
professor emeritus.
Source: The Scripps Research Institute press release, April 10, 2018.
Adam Smith Wins CAREER
Award for Receptor Tyrosine
Kinase Research
Adam W. Smith, PhD,
assistant professor
in the Department
of Chemistry at the
University of Akron
in Ohio, received a
CAREER award from
Adam W. Smith, PhD
the National Science
Foundation. This award supports early-
career faculty who have the potential
to serve as academic role models in
research and education. Dr. Smith will
receive $650,000 toward research into
lipid regulation of receptor tyrosine
kinases, which includes using advanced
fluorescence methods to measure
lipid-protein interactions in biologic
membranes.
Dr. Smith’s goal is to develop a quan-
titative chemical model for the interface
between plasma membrane lipids and
receptor tyrosine kinases, which regulate
cell growth and differentiation. These
proteins are targeted by a new class of
anti-cancer therapeutics.
Source: University of Akron press release, March 29, 2018.
Stand Up To Cancer Announces
“Innovation in Collaboration”
Award Winners
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) selected five
research teams as the 2018 winners of its
Phillip A. Sharp Innovation in Collabora-
tion Award. Each team includes members
of the SU2C research community and will
receive $1.25 million to support collabora-
tive research projects.
This year’s winners were:
• Claire F. Friedman, MD, Memorial
Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and
Marta Łuksza, PhD, Icahn School of
Medicine at Mount Sinai
“Definin