(From left) Daniel “Trey” Lee, MD, Amanda Lulu, PhD, Dustin “Drew” Cobb, PhD, Lixia Liu, PhD, Madeline Snyder. Lab members not shown: Erica Steele, MD, Nagyeong “Alyssa” Park, Raj Darshit Joshi.
Postdoctoral researcher Amanda Lulu, PhD, has been awarded a new grant from the Kate Amato Foundation to create safer, more effective treatments for children with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) and other solid tumors using CAR-T cell therapy, an innovative approach using a patient’s own modified immune cells to fight cancer.
Dr. Lulu’s project is focused on uncovering mechanisms of acquired resistance –when the cancer stops responding—to CAR-T cell therapies in pediatric patients with RMS. She is one of only four recipients selected nationwide to receive the 2024 Kate Amato Foundation grant for pediatric cancer research.
“What makes this research grant so special is that it honors the memory of the foundation’s daughter, Kate, a bright girl who died too young from rhabdomyosarcoma because there were no new treatments. I can’t think of a better way to honor Kate’s memory than to identify better ways to treat the very disease she suffered from,” stated Dr. Lulu.
Dr. Lulu works with Daniel (Trey) Lee, MD, in the UVA Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology and Oncology, whose CAR-T cell therapy research has been a true game changer for patients (adults and children) with leukemia, a cancer of the blood. However, there are many more challenges to effectively treating solid tumors, and, so far, CAR-T cell therapy has not had the same success. Dr. Lulu’s project aims to improve treatment outcomes for pediatric patients with rhabdomyosarcoma and other solid tumors through her new CAR-T cell research.
Filed Under: Research