Advances in the treatment of leukemia have improved the outlook for people with these blood cancers, but new therapeutic approaches that target unique aspects of leukemia cells are needed. To this end, the Center for Blood Cancers, part of NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, has awarded its first pilot project grants to encourage path-breaking translational or preclinical blood cancer research.

“The pilot award program is designed to promote collaboration among three different sets of researchers—clinical, translational and basic scientists—to help ensure that innovations that we develop in the lab benefit patients, and the clinical experience gained with these approaches feeds back into the lab,” said Faith E. Davies, MD, professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and director of the Center for Blood Cancers. “This inaugural round of pilot funding has produced two very strong teams who are putting all of their skills into investigating new therapeutic approaches for two particular kinds of leukemia—acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We believe these are the types of big ideas that will lead to peer-reviewed external grant funding in the longer term.”

The first pilot grant–funded team is investigating the role of adhesion molecules called integrins in ALL. To thrive, ALL cells usurp supportive niches that nurture normal developing cells, using integrins to cling tightly to these niches. The team—led by Shella Saint Fleur-Lominy, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, Susan R. Schwab, PhD, a professor in the Departments of Cell Biology and Pathology, and William L. Carroll, MD, the Julie and Edward J. Minskoff Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics and professor in the Department of Pathology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine—plans to assess whether blocking integrins might improve the efficacy of current leukemia treatments by depriving leukemia cells of survival factors in the niche and exposing them to chemotherapeutic drugs.

“One of the problems that patients with ALL can have is that the leukemia can go to the fluid that surrounds the brain, which can be a difficult place to try and kill the leukemia cells,” Dr. Davies said. “This project aims to try to understand why leukemia cells travel to the brain in certain patients and develop ways to stop that from happening.”

The second project—led by Michelle Krogsgaard, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pathology, Mohammad Maher Abdul Hay, MD, associate professor in the Department of Medicine and director of the Clinical Leukemia Program at Perlmutter Cancer Center, and Yury Patskovsky, PhD, instructor in the Department of Pathology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine—will evaluate phosphorylated antigens as targets for T cell therapy of AML.

Antigens are proteins on cancer cells that are targeted by T cells. Antigens that are shared among multiple patients are the most optimal targets for immunotherapy, but they are rare. The research team hypothesizes that antigens modified by a chemical process called phosphorylation are a possible source of shared antigens. Results of the research could open up the possibility for development of new treatment options that could be expanded to other blood cancers, and possibly transition into clinical trials for patients with cancer.

“To date, we haven’t been able to take advantage of advances in T cell therapy to treat AML,” Dr. Davies said. “This project is a novel and quite revolutionary approach to using the patients’ own cells to try and kill off the leukemia cells.”

The pilot awards provide up to $50,000 total funding for one year. Teams are given an initial $25,000. At six months, their progress is evaluated to ensure that they are meeting their marks, at which point they receive the balance of the funding to ensure that their projects move along, said Adeevah Goldstein, RN, HPAM, program manager at the Center for Blood Cancers.

Dr. Davies said the pilot awards program, which is funded through the anonymous $75 million gift that established the center in 2019, will become an annual competition. This year, nine teams submitted proposals.

Investigators from diverse fields, including those who have not previously conducted research in blood cancers, were encouraged to apply. Joint applications from principal investigators, including those from different disciplines and/or departments, was required. As a result, the proposals included new research ideas as well as new interactions among clinical, translational, and basic science researchers.

“All of this year’s applicants were strong, and it was an incredibly hard decision to narrow down to these two,” Dr. Davies said. “We hope that some of those who applied this year will reapply next year, and we are looking forward to new applicants as well.”