Christian Capitini, MD, associate professor and chief, Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Bone Marrow Transplant, and Sandro Mecozzi, PhD, professor of pharmaceutical sciences, were recently awarded a Translational Basic and Clinical Pilot Program award from the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (UW ICTR) in the amount of $50,000. Capitini is the leader of the Immunotherapy and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Research Group, while Mecozzi heads the Mecozzi Lab. Their project, entitled “Polarizing Cytotoxic NK Cells for Treatment of Metastatic Osteosarcoma of the Lung,” will study immunotherapeutics that act on natural killer (NK) cells to target lung metastases in patients with metastatic osteosarcoma. There are currently limited treatment options for metastatic osteosarcoma, which has a survival rate of only 20% despite chemotherapy and surgery. Jacques Galipeau, MD, the Don and Marilyn Anderson Professor in Oncology and associate dean for therapeutics development at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, will serve as co-investigator on the project. The one-year project will begin soon and conclude in the summer of 2024.