ILLUSTRATIONS: RAFAEL LOPEZ
W.M. Keck Foundation supports joint effort to develop advanced therapies against lymphoma
The W.M. Keck Foundation has awarded investigators at City of Hope and the California Institute of Technology a $450,000 grant to study the molecular mechanisms underlying lymphoma and develop new treatments for it. The pilot grant includes the opportunity to renew funding for as much as $1.55 million through 2010.
Lymphoma is a group of cancers of the immune system. It is the fifth most common cancer in the United States and is on the rise. Chemotherapy and radiation cannot cure several types of lymphoma, and many lymphomas recur. The grant supports City of Hope and Caltech scientists who are developing nanotechnology-based therapies to destroy lymphoma cells without harming healthy cells, reducing side effects.
“Patients would greatly benefit from less-toxic therapies for lymphoma, particularly older patients, who are most often affected and may not be able to tolerate intensive treatments, “ said Stephen Forman, M.D., the Francis and Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope and principal investigator of the study.
MARKIE RAMIREZStephen Forman
COURTESY OF CALTECHMark Davis
Caltech investigators include Mark Davis, Ph.D., the Warren and Katharine Schlinger Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Scott Fraser, Ph.D., the Anna L. Rosen Professor of Biology, professor of bioengineering and director of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center at Caltech. City of Hope investigators include Forman; John Rossi, Ph.D., chair of the Division of Molecular Biology; Andrew Raubitschek, M.D., chair of the Division of Cancer Immunotherapeutics & Tumor Immunology; David Colcher, Ph.D., deputy director of the Department of Radioimmunotherapy Research; Richard Jove, Ph.D., chair of the Division of Molecular Medicine and co-director of the Developmental Cancer Therapeutics Program; and Hua Eleanor Yu, Ph.D., professor in the Division of Cancer Immunotherapeutics & Tumor Immunology.
The Keck grant complements City of Hope’s Specialized Program of Research Excellence, work funded by the National Cancer Institute to improve the detection and treatment of Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Based in Los Angeles, the W.M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 by the late W.M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Company. The foundation’s grant-making focuses primarily on pioneering efforts in the areas of medical research, science and engineering.