14 Apr Jason Cantor Receives Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award
Jason Cantor, PhD
Assistant professor Jason Cantor has received a 2021 Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award. His was among the ten award-winning proposals that represent early-stage, innovative and cutting-edge technology in medicine and biomedical engineering.
“In our 16th year supporting innovative, early-stage biomedical research with the potential to benefit children, the 2021 competition for Individual Biomedical Research Awards once again proved to be exceptional. Nominees who received an award leveraged internal support and guidance from their participating institution, as well as the experience of previous Hartwell Investigators,” says Fred Dombrose, president of The Hartwell Foundation.
Cantor’s three-year grant, “Establishing a Physiologic Platform to Uncover Genetic Dependencies in Blood Cancers,” awards $100,000 per year in support of his research that could identify promising new therapeutic targets with greater relevance to human disease. During the award period, he and his team will examine T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), an aggressive blood cancer that accounts for 15% of all newly diagnosed ALL cases in the United States each year. Although survival rates for pediatric T-ALL have steadily improved, the intensive regimens typical for treatment cause chronic adverse effects in survivors and are ineffective for the nearly 20% of children that relapse.