Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) announced a $10 million award to a Stand Up To Cancer Dream Team focused on revolutionizing the treatment of multiple myeloma through the early detection of precursor conditions.
In the hope of developing therapies to prevent myeloma in high-risk populations, the project will conduct a population survey in the United States for precursor conditions of multiple myeloma, specifically monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance or smoldering multiple myeloma. Analyzing blood samples from approximately 50,000 people, the team plans to develop a better understanding of the molecular and immune factors that lead to disease progression and establish effective strategies to intercept disease progression and improve survival. The Dream Team will also identify lifestyle and demographic factors that contribute to disease progression, such as obesity and race.
The Dream Team will use all the information collected to develop new therapeutics to prevent multiple myeloma from progressing. They will include novel technologies of nanoparticles for better imaging of early disease and the first personalized neoantigen vaccine study for the population of patients screened.
Dream Team Members
The SU2C Multiple Myeloma Dream Team will be led by Irene Ghobrial, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Co-Director of the Center for the Prevention of Progression of Blood Cancers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, with Ivan M. Borrello, MD, Associate Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Director of the Cell Therapy and Co-Leader at GMP Biologics Core at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.
Listed below are other members of the SU2C Multiple Myeloma Dream Team:
- Joseph R. Mikhael, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona
- Timothy Rebbeck, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston
- Jeremiah A. Johnson, PhD, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Lorelei Ann Mucci, MPH, DSc, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston
- Gad Getz, PhD, Director of Cancer Genome Computational Analysis, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Viktor A. Adalsteinsson, PhD, Group Leader, Blood Biopsy Team, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
