WHEN EVERYONE SURVIVES FOUNDATION’S 2009 REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS IN LEUKEMIA RESEARCH
The 2009 submissions can be summed up in the following comment by our Medical Advisory Board. “The grants this year were of very high quality and these were difficult decisions.” Nonetheless, the two $50,000 grants promised for the year were awarded to Dr. Eunice Wang of Roswell Park Cancer Institute of Buffalo, NY and Dr. Laura Levy of Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. We congratulate both of these recipients for their comprehensive applications and wish them significant success with these projects that they might help us find a day when everyone survives.
Though we had intended to fund only two proposals during this cycle, recent events allowed us to fund a third grant we titled the “Founders Choice Award”. We were pleased that the head of our Medical Advisory Board submitted a proposal this year and recused himself from the selection process. After all the scoring and ranking, Dr. Edmund Waller of Emory University in Atlanta, GA was deemed to have scored in the top three and we, therefore, chose Dr. Waller’s proposal for funding with this special award. We are proud to have received such excellent proposals this year and equally proud to fund the three research efforts.
Dr. Wang’s proposal deals with the relationship of Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) cell growth to hypoxia (defined as low oxygen levels). Since the blood is typically approximately 99% oxygenated and bone marrow is less so (generally about 87%) it is hypothesized AML cells survive in relatively hypoxic marrow microenvironments and are resistant to conventional chemotherapy treatments. If this relationship can be verified, it is Dr. Wang’s hope that trials could be conducted utilizing novel anti-angiogenic and hypoxia-targeted agents for AML therapy.
Dr. Levy’s research proposal intends to provide a deeper understanding of the molecular basis for sensitivity to PKC? inhibition in leukemia and lymphoma cell survival, apoptosis, proliferation and angiogenesis. Upon obtaining this, it is hopeful that it may then be considered as a therapeutic target in hematological malignancies.
Dr. Waller’s proposal appears different from any we’ve seen in the past. Most leukemia cells express a melanoma-associated antigen (MAGE). The aim of their research is to develop a MAGE vaccine to induce the body to mount a productive immune response to it, thereby targeting the leukemia cells as well. If they are successful in developing the vaccine for transmission with mouse models, it is hopeful that it would translate to patient care.
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