The Breast Cancer Research Foundation-AACR Career Development Award to Promote Diversity and Inclusion represents a focused effort to encourage and support investigators from diverse backgrounds that are underrepresented in the cancer-related sciences workforce and to foster their career advancement. 

2022 Grantees

Research

Dysregulated immunoglobulin production and preexisting autoantibodies may contribute to autoimmune adverse events (AE) of immunotherapy (e.g., thyroid disease) and immune-mediated AEs of chemotherapy (e.g., peripheral neuropathy (CIPN)). This proposal aims to identify autoantibodies that are associated with therapy-induced immune-related AEs (irAEs) in patients with breast cancer. Dr. Blenman is set to: 1) determine if preexisting serum autoantibodies are associated with irAEs, and 2) determine if specific preexisting serum autoantibodies protein epitopes are associated with irAEs. This study has the potential to uncover biomarkers that can be used to forecast and monitor irAEs before, during, and after therapy to help guide treatments and evaluate survivorship.

Biography

Dr. Kim Blenman is an immunologist and clinical chemist who uses and develops novel software tools to understand the mechanisms responsible for disparities in disease pathogenesis and therapeutic response. In addition to an undergraduate degree in chemistry and a doctoral degree in immunology, she has a certificate in Drug Development and Regulatory Sciences from the University of California, San Francisco. She had the privilege of learning and working on drug discovery and clinical development at Procter & Gamble’s Pharmaceutical division as a senior scientist and as a global research director for autoimmune diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, and irritable bowel syndrome. She was also a Postdoctoral Fellow at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California. Dr. Blenman is currently an Assistant Professor in the Yale School of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine Section of Medical Oncology and the Yale Cancer Center as well as in the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science Department of Computer Science.

Acknowledgment of Support

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation-AACR Career Development Awards to Promote Diversity and Inclusion will be instrumental in helping me be a leader in the field and an advocate for equity in clinical research for all.

Research

Although lymph nodes play a critical role in the expansion of anti-cancer T cells, they are frequent sites of metastatic spread. Prior work by Dr. Jones and colleagues found that compression of blood vessels by breast tumors in lymph nodes is associated with impaired T cell entry into these metastatic tumors. In this project, Dr. Jones and his group will test the hypothesis that relieving this compression will improve T cell entry into nodal metastases. They will use long-term intravital imaging to measure whether decompressing blood vessels enhances T cell entry into metastatic tumors. Further, they aim to combine decompression therapy with immune therapy to test whether this drug combination will enhance the killing ability of T cells that enter lymph node tumors.

Biography

Dr. Jones obtained his PhD in Immunobiology from Yale University, where he studied basic mechanisms of lymphatic vessel expansion during pathological inflammation. He completed his postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where he developed mouse models of lymphatic metastasis and characterized tumor progression in lymph nodes. He is currently an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Medicine in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. His lab studies immune suppressive mechanisms within metastatic tumors with the goal of identifying novel targetable proteins for effective therapy of advanced breast cancer.

Acknowledgment of Support

I appreciate the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s and the AACR’s commitment to supporting underrepresented minority investigators and I am honored to receive the 2022 Career Development Award to Promote Diversity and Inclusion. This support will be instrumental in allowing us to understand and overcome mechanisms of tumor-mediated T cell suppression.

2021 grantees

Research
Black women continue to experience worse survival outcomes from breast cancer compared to other racial groups. Hormone-receptor positive breast cancer can require long-term treatment with post-operative endocrine therapy. To experience the full survival benefits of endocrine therapy treatment, it must be initiated, adhered to, and taken daily for 5 to 10 years (endocrine therapy pathway). Dr. Lee and her group will investigate how the entire endocrine therapy pathway influences outcomes, and identify multi-level risk factors for non-adherence to each step of the endocrine therapy pathway. They are set to use a mixed-methods approach combining population level real world data and qualitative interviews with Black breast cancer survivors to understand barriers to the pathway.

Biography
Dr. Lee is an assistant member in the Departments of Breast Oncology and Health Outcomes and Behavior at Moffitt Cancer Center. She received her MD and MHS in general epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University. Most recently, she completed a medical oncology fellowship at Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. Dr. Lee’s research focuses on how individual and systems-level factors contribute to disparities in health outcomes for people with breast cancer. Her goal is to develop multi-level interventions to address risk factors for poor outcomes, ultimately leading to greater health equity and improved outcomes for all.

Acknowledgment of Support
I am honored to have been selected as a recipient of the 2021 Breast Cancer Research Foundation-AACR Career Development Award to Promote Diversity and Inclusion. This award will help establish my research career, providing opportunity and support to conduct my research in breast cancer disparities.

Research
Breast cancer stem cells can emerge as a result of MYC-induced reprogramming of committed cell types (such as luminal epithelial cells in the mammary duct). Emerging evidence points to the role of super-enhancers in this reprogramming. The transcriptional coactivator Mediator links super-enhancers to target promoters within large transcription hubs and promotes MYC activity at super-enhancers, suggesting that Mediator facilitates reprogramming. Dr. Saldivar has uncovered an unexpected link between large transcription hubs and ATR, a replication stress-response kinase that is needed for MYC-driven cancers. His group will use a combination of time-lapse confocal imaging and single-cell sequencing to uncover a potential oncogenic role of ATR signaling within these hubs during MYC-induced reprogramming and breast cancer stem cell emergence.

Biography
Dr. Saldivar received his PhD at Ohio State University, where he studied the origins of genomic instability in premalignant cells. He completed his postdoctoral work at Stanford University, where he uncovered a cell cycle checkpoint pathway controlling the S to G2 transition. He is currently an assistant professor in the Division of Oncological Sciences and a member of the Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University. His lab studies the mechanisms driving reprogramming in the early stages of cancer.

Acknowledgment of Support
I am deeply honored to be selected as a recipient of the 2021 Breast Cancer Research Foundation-AACR Career Development Award to Promote Diversity and Inclusion. As an early career investigator, this award will enable me to conduct research focused on the mechanisms of oncogenic reprogramming in breast cancer.