New Investigator Research Grant Program

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a type of blood cancer that has poor prognosis. Patient prognosis is influenced by the function of a type of immune cell, called natural killer (NK) cells. NK cells are able to kill cancerous cells, but lose their efficacy when patients develop cancer. The Foltz lab re-educates NK cells to acquire memory, where they become more effective at killing AML including other types of cancer. In clinical trials of patients with relapsed AML, memory NK cells have been more effective than traditional NK cell therapies with an excellent safety profile. Despite these encouraging clinical results, many AML patients treated with memory NK cells ultimately have their disease progress. In this project, we will identify how to improve memory NK cell therapy for AML. Our preliminary work has found that some memory NK cells are more functional than other memory NK cells. We will apply cutting-edge single-cell techniques to identify which memory NK cells are the most effective against AML, and to determine how AML can inhibit some memory NK cells. We will also identify the phenotype of AML that is able to avoid NK cell destruction. We expect to identify several new components of both memory NK cells and AML that we will pursue for translation into a new clinical trial working with our collaborators at Washington University School of Medicine to ultimately improve outcomes for patients with AML.