ASGCT Selects First-Ever Career Development Grant Group, Awards Total $245,000

The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy’s (ASGCT) first class of 14 career development grant recipients were named by a selection committee made up of industry leaders identified by the ASGCT board of directors. In total, the Society will distribute $245,000.

The Career Development grants are mentored awards to support ASGCT members designing transformative pilot studies in gene and cell therapy as they prepare to transition to independence. The Society was particularly interested in funding ideas that would be challenging to fund with normal mechanisms and helping applicants generate preliminary data to use in larger proposals (NIH K awards, first-submission R-level funding, etc.).

ASGCT’s 14 inaugural awardees are a diverse group from varied and wide-ranging specialties:

Ulrika Beitnere, Ph.D.

University of California Davis, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine

Realizing the dream of RNA-directed Therapies by Combinatorial Assessment of Cas13 Family Nucleases and AAV Delivery to the Brain

Diana X. Bharucha-Goebel, M.D.

Children’s National Health System and The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

A systematic clinical analysis of the immunologic effects of intrathecal AAV9 mediated gene transfer targeting the central nervous system

Lauriel F. Earley, Ph.D.

University of Chapel Hill – North Carolina, Gene Therapy Center, Department of Pediatrics

Development of a novel innate-immune evasive AAV-Pank2 vector for treatment of PKAN

Mohamed A. Hammad, Ph.D.

Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope

A Novel Neural Stem Cell-Mediated Oncolytic Chimeric Pox Virotherapy for Stage III Ovarian Cancer

Geoffrey D. Keeler

University of Florida, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cellular & Molecular Therapy

Identifying optimal CD8 Treg for CAR Treg Therapy

Makan Khoshnejad Ph.D.

The Wistar Institute, The Vaccine Center

DNA-encoded Bispecific LDL Engager (BiLE) antibodies for treatment of hypercholesterolemia

Benjamin Kleinstiver, Ph.D.

Massachusetts General Hospital

Enhancing the Safety of CRISPR-Engineered T cells for Cancer Immunotherapy

Ami Patel, Ph.D.

The Wistar Institute, Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center

In vivo post-translational glycoengineering of plasmid DNA gene-encoded monoclonal antibodies

Nicole Paulk, Ph.D.

University of California San Francisco, Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics

Characterizing the proteomic landscape of rAAV vectors for human liver gene therapies

Sandhya Sharma

Baylor College of Medicine, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy

Generation of memory cell enriched, broad repertoire antigen specific T cells for EBV positive malignancies

Katie M. Stiles, Ph.D.

Weill Cornell Medical College, Genetic Medicine

Modification of AAV expression vectors to enhance translation

Lauren E. Woodard, Ph.D.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Medicine

Treatment of acute kidney injury via in situ reprogramming

Mehmet E Yalvac, Ph.D.

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Generation of motor neurons carrying ALS-associated KIF5A mutations from gene edited embyonic stem cells

Jiehua Zhou, Ph.D.

Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope National Medical Center

Targeting HIV-1 Reservoirs by Multi-specific Aptamers-based T cells Engager (MATE)

ASGCT is honored to have received such strong interest from its membership and congratulates this strongly-qualified group of awardees. The 2019 Career Development Grants program will begin accepting applications shortly after the 22nd ASGCT Annual Meeting, April 29 – May 2, held at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C.

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