Last year, the MMRF kicked off our $15 million Immunotherapy
Initiative, designed to focus on therapies that harness the
body’s own immune system to fight myeloma. Immunotherapy
is a critical piece of precision medicine. By collecting and
generating immune data, we can better understand the
characterization of each patient’s multiple myeloma and
how it will respond to certain treatments.
THE MMRF ADVANCES
PRECISION MEDICINE APPROACHES
IN IMMUNOTHERAPY
Now, we are pleased to announce that the work is beginning
with $7 million in funding to three leading-edge, collaborative
research programs. The projects are led by world-class
investigators and will take place across several sites in the
United States and abroad. All the efforts will contribute
valuable immune data to our Data Bank and will move us
closer to more precision medicine solutions for myeloma.
Combined Chimeric Antigen Receptor Therapy (CAR-T)
and Active Immunization
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: DAVID AVIGAN, MD
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
This project will focus on the development of novel immunotherapy drug
combinations of CAR-T and personalized vaccines with the goal of moving these
therapies into clinical trials. Dr. Avigan’s group also hopes to identify factors that
predict patient response or resistance to immune therapy.
Dissecting Immune Regulation and Dysfunction Within
the Bone Marrow Microenvironment
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: IVAN BORRELLO, MD
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center
Dr. Borrello and his grou p are trying to understand the role that the patient’s immune
system and tumor bone marrow microenvironment play in disease progression,
particularly in high-risk and resistant myeloma. The data will be used to develop
an immune scoring system to predict patient response to immune therapies.
Defining Optimal Tumor and Host Signatures for
Immunotherapy of Myeloma
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: C. OLA LANDGREN, MD, PHD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
This project will look closely at genetics, protein and antibodies in patients and their
tumors to identify factors that might predict their response to immune therapy and
to identify new therapy targets.
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