The AACR-QuadW Foundation Fellowship for Clinical/Translational Sarcoma Research represents a joint effort to encourage and support a postdoctoral or clinical research fellow to work on mentored sarcoma research and to establish a successful career path in this field. Funded research may be translational or clinical in nature.

2025 Grantee

Scientific Statement of Research  

While multimodal chemotherapy combined with surgical resection has resulted in an approximately 70% disease-free five-year survival rate in patients with localized osteosarcoma (OS), patients with metastatic disease fare far worse. Therefore, new treatment strategies are desperately needed for patients with this aggressive malignancy. To identify potential targeted combinations with PARPi, Dr. Morsby exploited a genome scale loss-of-function CRISPR-Cas9 synergy screen in two OS cell lines in the presence and absence of the FDA-approved PARPi olaparib over a period of 14 days. ATM emerged as a top druggable sensitizer to PARPi in both cell lines. This funded project is designed to test the hypothesis that dual inhibition of ATM and PARP will lead to pediatric OS cell death in vitro and in vivo via apoptosis.

Biography  

Dr. Morsby completed her doctorate at the University of Notre Dame in 2023, where her work focused on utilizing novel near-infrared probes to monitor hypoxic regions of tumors. She is currently a postdoctoral research associate at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital working on validating the dual inhibition of ATM and PARP as a novel therapy for pediatric osteosarcoma. 

Acknowledgment of Support 

“I am extremely honored and grateful to be awarded the AACR-QuadW Foundation Sarcoma Research Fellowship in Memory of Willie Tichenor. This project has high clinical relevance, as current treatment options being explored for pediatric OS patients are very limited. Receiving this award means I will have the funding necessary to complete and publish this work, which can directly impact patients.” 

2024 grantee

Scientific Statement of Research

Liposarcoma (LPS) is an informative model to investigate dysregulated differentiation given its well and dedifferentiated subtypes (WDLPS, DDLPS). WDLPS transitions to DDLPS in 25% of patients, leading to metastatic disease, but the mechanisms governing the transition are poorly understood. Dr. Pimenta utilized single nucleus RNA sequencing to compare 23 adipose, WDLPS, and DDLPS patient samples, and this analysis revealed loss of IGF1 signaling in DDLPS. In normal adipocytes, IGF1 autocrine signaling maintains differentiation, therefore, this proposal will investigate whether restoration of IGF1 signaling in DDLPS results in terminal differentiation and a less metastatic phenotype. In Aim 1, Dr. Pimenta will measure the effect of exogenous IGF1 on DDLPS morphology and behavior in vitro. In Aim 2, external DDLPS bulk RNA-sequencing datasets will be analyzed to assess if IGF1 loss predicts metastatic disease. Completion of this proposal will elucidate the role of IGF1 in liposarcoma and determine its utility as a prognostic tool and novel therapeutic target.

Biography

Dr. Pimenta obtained both her bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and medical and doctorate degrees from Rutgers University. Her thesis work focused on transcriptional programs that govern disease behavior and immune response in solid tumors. Dr. Pimenta completed a combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency at Brigham and Women’s and Boston Children’s Hospitals in 2020. She is clinically and scientifically focused on sarcoma pathogenesis and immune evasion, leveraging both computational and molecular biology approaches. Dr. Pimenta is currently a medical oncology fellow  at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Acknowledgement of Support

“I am extremely grateful and honored to be awarded the AACR-QuadW Foundation Sarcoma Research Fellowship in Memory of Willie Tichenor. In the sarcoma clinic, many patients have asked me why there is a relative lack of data about this group of cancers. Becoming a sarcoma-focused physician-scientist has allowed me to proudly tell my patients that sarcoma research is active and state-of-the art. This award means so much to me because it allows for the continuation of this necessary and important work, with protected research time to pursue excellence in biologic discovery. I am very thankful to all who made this possible.”