Amy Strelzer Manasevit Scholars Honored at ASBMT Meeting

The Marrow Foundation, NMDP Announce Research Grants

Continuing the legacy of the young Connecticut woman who wanted to improve the lives of marrow and blood cell transplant patients, The Marrow Foundation^® and the National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP) have announced the 2005 Amy Strelzer Manasevit Research Program for the Study of Post-Transplant Complications award winners.

Amy Strelzer Manasevit, a young, vibrant mother from Fairfield, Conn., received an unrelated donor marrow transplant in the 1990s facilitated by the NMDP. After Amy succumbed to complications from her transplant, her family founded the Amy Strelzer Manasevit Research Program to provide resources for promising researchers to seek solutions to complications following transplantation.

The 2005 winners are:

• Onder S. Alpdogan, M.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, who was named the 2005 Amy Strelzer Manasevit Scholar. In his study, "Immunostimulatry Cytokine/Growth Factor and T-Cell Precursor Administration to Enhance Immune Reconstitution After Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation In Experimental Murine Models," Alpdogan will work to enhance post-transplant T-cell reconstitution. This research could lead to the development of new strategies to decrease the incidence of fatal infectious complications and significantly improve the overall survival after allogeneic bone marrow transplants.
  
• Pavan R. Reddy, M.D., University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, Mich., who was designated the 2005 Alaina J. Enlow Scholar. Reddy's research focuses on allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell post-transplant complications, and his study is titled: "Regulation of Acute Graft-versus-Host Disease and Graft-versus-Leukemia Effect by Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors." Dr. Reddy will investigate the use of a new class of agents that could potentially alleviate some complications associated with graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and make allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation safer. Alaina, a charismatic and gifted young photographer, succumbed to post-transplant complications caused by graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) following her second transplant when she was 18. "Alaina always liked the idea that doctors could learn from her experiences, and we are humbled that her ultimate sacrifice will someday lead to major breakthroughs in transplant and post-transplant care," said her father, John Enlow of Denton, Texas

Additional grants

• Cynthia Giver, Ph.D., Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, who was named the 2005 Baxter Post-Doctoral Fellow. Titled "Fludarabine-Treated Donor T Cells in Allogeneic BMT-Reduced Graft-Versus-Host Disease Activity with Retained Graft-Versus-Leukemia effects," Giver's study will research the possibility of using fludarabine as a method of reducing GVHD while retaining the desired effects of Graft-versus-Leukemia.
  
• William W. Hope, M.B.B.S., F.R.A.C.P., National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, who was awarded the 2005 Fujisawa Post-Doctoral Fellowship. He will examine new pharmaceutical treatments for post-transplant patients suffering from complications caused by GVHD. Hope's study is titled, "The Application of Antifungal Pharmacodynamics to Optimize the Therapeutic Outcome of Invasive Aspergillosis Post-Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation."
  
• Marie Bleakley, M.D., Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Wash., who was named the 2005 SuperGen Post-Doctoral Fellow. Bleakley's research titled "Targeting the Leukemic Stem Cell: Development of a Novel Therapeutic Strategy to Prevent and Treat Leukemic Relapse Following Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant," will center on the development of clinical protocols to prevent and treat a relapse of leukemia that sometimes follows hematopoietic cell transplants, and also to enable the development of leukemia vaccines.

This year, The Marrow Foundation and the family and friends of Chris Jacobsen announced the first Christian Jacobsen Post-Doctoral Fellow, Hong Zheng, M.D., Ph.D. Zheng, a post-doctoral associate at the Yale Cancer Center at Yale University, is researching memory T cells as a way to mediate graft-versus-leukemia without causing GVHD. Her study is titled, "Spontaneous Memory T Cells in Graft-Versus-Leukemia Effect."

The Marrow Foundation's Christian Jacobsen Fund for Research was established to honor the memory of Intensive Care Unit nurse and unrelated marrow transplant recipient Chris Jacobsen. Jacobsen's marrow donor and his family joined forces to secure funds for research on post-transplant complications that threaten a recipient's recovery. Jacobsen's transplant was a success, and he was expected to return home to his wife and three children but he did not survive a post-transplant infection.

The award winners were recognized at the Keystone Resort during the annual meeting of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT) Saturday, Feb. 12, at a reception given by The Marrow Foundation and the NMDP. Members of the families of Alaina Enlow and Christian Jacobsen were in attendance to meet the Scholars and Fellows.