These one-year awards, made possible through the Fowler family's generous support of AYA cancer research at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, are granted to members of the AYA Cancer Research Initiative, led by John Letterio and Stan Gerson. The objective of these awards is to broaden and deepen research focus on AYA cancers and to engage members across the Center in this important area.
2017 AYA Cancer Research Awards
"Therapeutic Targeting of CDK5: A Potential for Modulating Tumor Immunity"
PI: John Letterio
Co-Investigators: Alex Huang, Agne Petrosiute, Reshmi Parameswaran, Lewis Shi, Mari Dallas
"Overcoming Hostile Microenvironment in Metastatic Osteosarcoma for Immunotherapy"
PI: Alex Huang
Co-Investigators: Mei Zhang, John Letterio, Reshmi Parameswaran, Stefanie Avril, Agne Petrosiute, Edward Greenfield, Robin Elliott
"Epigenetic-based therapeutics for metastatic osteosarcoma"
PIs: Edward Greenfield, Peter Scacheri, Brian Rubin
Co-Investigators: Drew Adams, Eli Bar, Rance Gamblin, Patrick Getty, Alex Huang, Guang Zhou
2016 AYA Cancer Research Awards
"Targeting and Treatment of Adolescent and Young Adult Glioblastoma Using PTPμ-based Targeting Agents and Chain-like Nanoparticles"
PIs: Susann Brady-Kalnay, Mark Griswold, Stathis Karathanasis
"Disruption of Cdk5 Diminishes Tumor PD-L1 Expression and Enhances CD4+ T Cell-mediated Rejection of Medulloblastoma and Other AYA Brain Tumors"
PIs: Alex Huang and Agne Petrosiute
Co-Investigators: Eli Bar, Duncan Stearns, Stefanie Avril
"The MT1-MMP − TGF-β axis in Melanoma: Potentiating Metastasis and Suppressing Tumor Immunity"
PI: John Letterio and Barbara Bedogni
Co-Investigators: Rafick Sekaly, Henry Koon, Julian Kim
"Targeting AYA Leukemia with NK Cell Therapy"
PI: David Wald and Lan Zhou
Co-Investigators: Marcos de Lima, Folashade Otegbeye
2015 AYA Cancer Research Awards
"Use of a Novel Radiographic Biomarker to Characterize Low Grade Glioma and Treatment Effect in Adolescent and Young Adults"
PI: Peter de Blank
Co-Investigators: Mark Griswold, Andrew Sloan
"Targeting Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Using NK Cell Therapy"
PI: Marcos de Lima
Co-Investigators: David Wald, Alex Huang
"Disrupting Macrophage Interaction with Tumor-associated VCAM-1 Signaling in Pulmonary Metastasis of Osteosarcoma"
PI: Alex Huang
Co-Investigators: Nicole Steinmetz, Ed Greenfield, San Xiao
"A Novel Role for Cdk5 in Melanoma Biology and Metastasis"
PI: John Letterio
Co-Investigators: Seong-Jin Kim, Patrick Leahy, Tej Kumar Pareek, Seunghwan Lim, Marcus Rosenberg, Barbara Bedogni
"Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Database and Biorepository"
PI: Paolo Caimi, Yousif Matloub, Robin Norris
Co-Investigators: Sanjay Ahuja, Amelia Baffa, Rachel Egler, Meg Gerstenblith, Henry Koon, David Mansur, John Pink