Medicine’s Reshmi Parameswaran awarded grant to advance hairy cell leukemia research

Reshmi Parameswaran, PhD, a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Immune Oncology Program, was among six researchers to receive support through HCL2030, a collaborative initiative of the Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation and Blood Cancer United (formerly The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society). Together, the organizations are investing nearly $7 million over five years to advance research and improve outcomes for patients with this rare malignancy.

Parameswaran’s project, funded in September, will investigate the role of B-cell activating factor (BAFF) in promoting treatment resistance and explore strategies to target this protein to improve therapeutic response.

Hairy cell leukemia is a rare blood cancer affecting approximately 1,200 Americans annually. While patients with classic disease often experience prolonged remissions, the more aggressive variant responds poorly to conventional therapies and carries a poorer prognosis.

Parameswaran is director of the Cancer Biology Training Program and associate professor at the School of Medicine, and a researcher in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center. Her research focuses on mechanisms of drug resistance and the development of novel cancer immunotherapies.