Leukemia & Lymphoma Society awards $12.6 million for translational research

by AJP Posted : January 21, 2014, 15:11Updated : January 21, 2014, 15:11
The U.S.-based Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has awarded 21 grants worth US$12.6 million in total under its Translational Research Program to tackle six identified areas of high unmet need in blood cancers.

Each grant is for a three-year period with an overall value of $600,000. Successful requests for proposals (RFPs) submitted for topics spanning include new immunotherapeutics for patients with acute myelogenousleukaemia; novel therapeutics for patients with non-cutaneous T-cell malignancies; novel agents in the treatment of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma; therapies for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes who have failed on hypomethylating agents; therapies for new targets such as bromodomains, methylation and other epigenetic approaches to high-risk myeloma; and research addressing long-term and late effects of blood-cancer therapies.

LLS also announced the award of an additional 20 Translational Research Program grants not related to the RFPs to scientists working in other areas of blood cancer research. These awards came to a total of $11.4 million.

The Translational Research Program is designed to help accelerate the transition of promising blood-cancer discoveries from the laboratory to the clinic.

By Ruchi Singh