New Investigator Research Grant Program

CAR T cell therapy, a type of treatment that uses a patient’s own immune cells to recognize and kill cancer, has transformed treatment for patients with aggressive B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), particularly when standard therapies fail. However, up to half of patients relapse, often because the leukemia cells lose a protein on the outside of the leukemia cells, called CD19, that CAR T cells use to recognize and kill them. Once this happens, the cancer becomes invisible to the therapy, leaving patients with very limited treatment options. Our research aims to understand what happens inside leukemia cells when CD19 is lost, and whether this change creates new weaknesses that can be targeted with drugs. Using advanced genetic screening technologies and drug testing, we will identify vulnerabilities that are unique to CD19-negative leukemia cells. We will then test whether existing or new treatments can exploit these weaknesses to kill the cancer. Importantly, we will also explore whether combining these treatments with CAR T therapy could prevent relapse from happening in the first place. This work has the potential to lead to new, more effective treatment strategies for patients who relapse after CAR T therapy, improving survival and long-term outcomes for children and adults with high-risk leukemia.