Immunotherapy & Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Research Group (Capitini)

Christian Capitini, MD, along with Co-Investigators Paul Sondel, MD, PhD, and Sean Fain, PhD (Medical Physics), were recently awarded a four-year, Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society (ACS), for the project entitled, "Ex vivo activated NK cells and immunocytokine for pediatric cancers." This grant, for $792,000 (total costs), will provide preclinical evidence for a potential platform for incorporating recently developed immunotherapies, namely immunocytokine and natural killer (NK) cells, for treatment of neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma.

Congratulations to Katharine Tippins, medical student, and her mentor, Christian Capitini, MD, for receiving a Summer Student Fellowship from St. Baldrick's Foundation in the amount of $5,000. This 4-month Summer Fellowship is for her project entitled, "Generating an NK-mediated graft-versus-tumor effect against osteosarcoma," which she will use murine bone marrow transplant (BMT) models to develop evidence for a clinically applicable combined strategy that utilizes immunocytokines (IC) to enhance anti-tumor properties of immunologically activated, ex vivo activated natural killer (NK) cells. The underlying goal of this study is to develop a bone marrow transplant that can cure osteosarcoma.

Christian Capitini, MD, Principal Investigator, along with UW Co-Principal Investigator Krishanu Saha, PhD (Biomedical Engineering), were recently awarded a one-year $50,000 grant for their project, "Optimization of CD19 CAR NK cells for B cell leukemia," submitted for the UW Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC) Leukemia Research Funding Opportunity. This project will compare the ability of natural killer (NK) cells to mediate anti-leukemia effects using a CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) versus CAR T cells. The NK CAR cells will be developed using non-viral approaches, such as with CRISPR-Cas9. In addition, the team will develop an assay to assess the risk for neurotoxicity, a potential life threatening complication, from the NK CAR cells. Congratulations!

A unique new therapy for children and young adults with a particular form of leukemia received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval on August 30, 2017. American Family Children's Hospital will be one of a handful of certified treatment centers nationwide that offer the treatment, another example of personalized medicine.

Known as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy, Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) was approved to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that has resisted other treatment or has relapsed a second time. CAR-T cell therapy engineers a child's immune cells (called T-cells) to express a CAR to attach to and eliminate those leukemia cells that express a specific antigen on their cell surface.

The Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer (MACC) Fund has funded each of nine separate grant requests made by the Departments of Pediatrics and Human Oncology. This marks the 40th year of the MACC Fund, and awards from this year have now brought the overall total of contributions to greater than $60 million to childhood cancer research here in Wisconsin. The grants will fund each project for $100,000 over the next two years. Congratulations to all of the researchers involved!