UVA alumnus Michael R. Pascucci
A $50,000 gift honoring a UVA alumnus’ memory will support the work of Kristin Anderson, PhD, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, in pursuit of new triple-checkpoint engineered T-cell therapies for ovarian cancer.
A Cavalier football player remembered by family and friends as “larger than life,” Michael R. Pascucci died in 2007 at just 40, eight and half months after his diagnosis with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer. After his passing, his widow, Amy, gathered friends and family to honor “Scucci” by establishing the Michael R. Pascucci Cancer Association (MPCA) with the goal of eradicating cancer by funding research.
To date, the MPCA has raised more than $450,000 for research at UVA and other institutions, including Dr. Anderson’s work targeting advanced and recurrent ovarian cancer.
While the immune system is capable of detecting and fighting cancer, the disease has adapted by incorporating proteins that shut off that immune response. Dr. Anderson and team are engineering immune T cells in the lab that can “ignore” those signals and target cancer cells, while also moderating the T cells’ metabolism to keep them active and effective over time.
The team is evaluating a therapy that combines the engineered T cells with checkpoint-inhibitor drugs, which block the proteins that turn off the immune response to cancer. In lab models, the combination significantly slowed tumor growth, and Dr. Anderson and her colleagues seek to use insights from these studies to develop new safe and effective therapies to test in clinical trials.
“Immunotherapies are remarkable in that they can target cancer directly with limited side effects,” Dr. Anderson said. “Their development takes time, though, as does testing them with other treatments to determine ideal combination therapies. We’re enormously grateful for MPCA’s generous support, which is critical to develop new treatments and move them from the lab to patients.”
MPCA formally presented the gift Sept. 20 at its 17th annual ScucciFest, a celebration and fundraiser on the James River in Midlothian featuring daylong live music, one of Pascucci’s passions.
“Mike was a proud UVA grad who was Larger Than Life, and loved helping others,” said Amy Pascucci Hanrahan. “He’d be thrilled that his legacy supports the University’s groundbreaking cancer research, including Dr. Anderson’s.”
Filed Under: Philanthropy