On April 23, CCF visited Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. In addition to serving as one of our nation’s premier children’s hospitals, Children’s National Hospital is dedicated to creating cellular therapy treatments, a type of immunotherapy, for children with cancer and other diseases.
The tour was kindly organized and led by 2023 CCF Research Grant Awardee Chase McCann, Ph.D. In addition to CCF staff, Tasha Museles and Lauren Lasher, Board members Steve Coomes and Pete Legambi joined the tour and learned how their efforts translate directly to advancing critical research.
Dr. McCann is Assistant Director of Manufacturing of the Cell Therapy Laboratory (CTL), a key part of the hospital’s Cell Enhancement and Technologies for Immunotherapy (CETI) Program, led by Catherine Bollard, M.D. CCF first funded the first version of the Cellular Therapy Laboratory back in 2015, when immunotherapy was a relatively new and experimental approach to cancer treatment. CCF awarded the lab’s researcher Patrick Hanley, Ph.D. with the 2015 CCF Giant Food NextGen Award, and funded his work within the lab for several years following. Today, Dr. Hanley serves as Chief and Director of the Cellular Therapy Program. CCF is proud to see how, after that first visit in 2015 to the cellular therapy lab, the CTL received funding that allowed it to expand to a larger, more advanced lab space, capable of developing the most advanced and promising cell therapy treatments in the world.
Dr. McCann joined the CTL team in 2020 and has shared with us how important receiving the CCF grant was in his contribution to the overall aims of the lab. He informed the group about two promising clinical trials that are about to start: 1) a novel, highly personalized approach developed at Children’s National that targets an individual patient’s specific tumor, and 2) an international collaboration, working in close coordination with labs in Boston and London. Both trials are seeking ways to have cell therapy offer a better response in solid tumors, as opposed to blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, which have had more consistent and positive results. The international clinical trial will be coordinated in an innovative way that could cut down time for getting treatments out to children as standard treatment much faster.
Meeting with young researchers and seeing firsthand how CCF’s investment in a lab can make a difference is incredibly rewarding. We are proud of our history with Children’s National. Tasha reflected on this important partnership in a recent blog.
CCF extends our gratitude to the Children’s National team.
