Goal: Develop and fund a series of three-year FLC research fellowships Grant length: Four years Overview: With this grant, FCF partnered with the prestigious Cancer Research Institute (CRI) to specifically focus on the role immunotherapy could have in creating curative therapies for fibrolamellar. CRI has been promoting immunotherapy research for 65 years, long before the …
Goal: Develop new therapeutics for FLC Principal Investigator: Sandy Simon, PhD Investigator Collaboration: Barbara Lyons, PhD (New Mexico State University) Grant length: Two years Study overview: The goal of this work was to identify potential therapeutic strategies to target FLC. The team identified three independent approaches to analyze based on their laboratory’s work showing that …
Goal: Understand growth mechanisms and identify potential therapeutic targets Principal Investigators: John Gordan, MD, PhD (UCSF) and Nabeel Bardeesy, PhD (Mass General Hospital) Grant length: Two years Study overview: The discovery of a genetic change in the protein kinase A (PKA) gene in nearly all cases of fibrolamellar liver cancer (FLC) creates hope that targeted …
Goal: Characterize inhibition of the DnaJ-PKAc chimeric protein in fibrolamellar carcinoma Principal Investigator: Hibba tul Rehman, MD Grant length: One year Study overview: The DNAJB1-PRKACA fusion gene produces the DNAJ-PKAc fusion kinase protein, which is present in nearly all FLC tumors and promotes liver tumor formation in mice. Kinases, including fusion kinases, have been successful …
Goal: Investigate DNAJB1-PRKACA fusion kinase function in new fibrolamellar carcinoma models Principal Investigator: Yi Guo, PhD Grant length: One year Study overview: The DNAJB1-PRKACA fusion kinase is found in nearly 100% of FLC cases. While this novel fusion had previously been shown to promote tumors in mice, defining the mechanistic function of DNAJB1-PRKACA and the …
Goal: Study the interactions between the immune system and FLC in a mouse model Principal Investigator: Kevin Barry, PhD Grant length: Multiple years; part of CRI fellowship Study overview: Cancer immunotherapies harness the power of the immune system to kill tumors. Checkpoint blockade immunotherapies are an exciting class of cancer immunotherapies that remove the brakes …
Goal: Define the dominant immune checkpoint pathway in FLC Principal investigator: Amy K. Kim, MD Grant length: Multiple years; part of CRI fellowship Study overview: Tumor cells produce immune checkpoint molecules that suppress host immune response and allow evasion from immune responses. The discovery of drugs that block these immune checkpoints have revolutionized current cancer …
Goal: Characterize T-cells in the FLC tumor microenvironment Principal Investigator: Kevin M. Sullivan, MD Grant length: Multiple years; part of CRI fellowship Study Overview: Immunotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that harnesses the patient’s own immune system to fight the disease. The immune system can precisely target cancer cells, while also minimizing damage to …
Goal: Develop a pre-clinical mouse model for fibrolamellar carcinoma Principal Investigator: Julien Sage, PhD Grant length: One year Study overview: There are few effective therapies for FLC patients and development of improved therapeutics are hampered by the rarity of the disease and the challenge of including pediatric patients in many clinical trials. One solution to …