Research

Dana-Farber has approximately 500 faculty members, with more than 200 principal investigators. Included below is a sampling of some of our areas of research with available licensing opportunities.

Small Molecule Drugs and Technologies

• USP1 inhibitors, DNA repair targets (PI: Alan D’Andrea, MD)
• Irreversible and reversible kinase inhibitors, protein degradation, protease inhibitors (PI: Nathanael Gray, PhD)
• Thalidomide and its derivatives and proteasome inhibitor (PS341) as new treatments for multiple myeloma (PI: Paul Richardson, MD)
• Small molecule inhibitors of Bax, MCL-1; stapled peptides (PI: Loren Walensky, MD, PhD)
• Small molecule activators of peptide loading on MHC Class II (PI: Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD)

Antibody and protein drugs, targets and technologies

• Multiple myeloma targets; small molecule immunomodulators (PI: Kenneth Anderson, MD)
• CD-8 Treg/Qa-1 peptide interactions in tumor and auto-immunity; MINK kinase involved in self-tolerance (PI: Harvey Cantor, MD)
• Tetramer-based identification of new antigens and antibodies from vaccinated cancer patients (PIs: Frank Hodi, MD/Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD)
• Genetic changes in lung cancers and pre-cancerous lung lesions and identification of molecular therapeutic targets in malignant pleural mesothelioma (PI: Pasi Jänne, MD, PhD)
• Developing approaches that block MUC1-C subunit function with soluble receptors and antibodies against the MUC1-C extracellular domain (PI: Donald Kufe, MD)
• USP2a, androgen responsive and over expressed in prostate tumors, and regulates the stability of fatty acid synthase (FAS), essential for tumor cell survival (PI: Max Loda, MD)
• Human antibody engineering platform; several candidate antibodies (PI: Wayne Marasco, MD, PhD)
• Proteomics-based methods for in-depth analysis of key molecular events in tumorigenesis (PI: Jarrod Marto, PhD)
• Lung cancer gene alterations. Sequencing protein kinase, identification of BRAF mutations in lung adenocarcinoma and EGFR mutations in lung adenocarcinoma (PI: Matt Meyerson, MD, PhD)
• Non-coding RNAs, Programmable DNA methylation, and engineering T cells for immunotherapy (PI: Carl Novina, MD, PhD)
• Tumor microenvironment in breast tumorigenesis, autocrine/paracrine interactions and breast stem cell characterization (PI: Ellis L. Reinherz, MD)
• Lymphocyte recognition of antigen and the process of T cell activation and differentiation. Structure-function relationship of the T cell receptor (TCR) for antigen in MHC products (CD3-Ti), CD2 and CD4 (PI: Kornelia Polyak, MD, PhD)
• Characterization of immune reconstitution following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation 2 (PI: Jerome Ritz, MD)
• Translational research on cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors (p16ink4a) (PI: Geoffrey Shapiro, MD, PhD)
• Galectin 1 antibodies for cancer therapy; animal models of lymphoma (PI: Margaret Shipp, MD)
• Oncogene alterations directly from tumor specimens. CRLF2 cytokine receptor, an essential oncogene in 5-10% of adult and pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (PI: David Weinstock, MD)