“It’s important to provide support to something like VeloSano so this research can get done.” says Craig Sauter, MD. “Having philanthropic support is very helpful to the investigators and, most notably, to the patients that are affected.”
Co-Investigator
Co-Investigator
Leukemia is a blood cancer where abnormal cells grow out of control in bone marrow. Treatment for this disease has evolved in recent years to engineer patients’ immune systems to fight the cancer through chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells. Despite having success with this therapy, the largest challenge to date is disease recurrence and resistance.
Craig Sauter, MD, Jos Melenhorst, PhD, and Beatriz Coutinho de Oliveira, PhD, are hoping to genetically modify these cells to make them more specific in targeting cancer cells. “The idea with this project is to enhance the production of the cellular therapy to allow persistence and improved efficacy, with the hope of curing more patients,” says Dr. Sauter.
The goal is to improve the capabilities of CAR T-cells by putting a new gene in the mix that allows these cells to seek out tumor cells, bind to them and then kill them. “It’s very effective,” says Dr. Melenhorst. “What we have done is actually study these cells in the lab and identified a critical component that enhances the efficacy of these cells against their own tumors quite substantially.”
The team aims to collect data to prove this concept so that they are able to move into a phase I clinical trial and test this therapy on patients.
“We’re very honored and grateful for VeloSano funding and for Cleveland Clinic,” says Dr. Oliveira. “Here, we have the advantage of being able to collaborate closely with clinicians and do this research with so many patient samples. It’s really amazing.”
100% For The Cure
