University of Colorado Cancer Center member Daniel Pollyea, MD, MS, has been honored by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) for his research on leukemia stem cells and his efforts to develop drugs that can target these cells, leading to impactful treatments.
The LLS gave Pollyea its Career Development Achievement Award during a reception on December 8 at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego.
“In our field, the LLS is the standard bearer for excellence in research,” says Pollyea, professor of hematology in the CU Department of Medicine. “The patient advocacy work they do is also important and well known. To get an award like this from LLS — knowing who's at that organization and who the other LLS-funded investigators are — you could not have a higher honor. It's great to have that recognition.”
Pollyea, second from left, and other LLS awardees at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in December.
Venetoclax breakthrough
The award specifically recognizes Pollyea’s research into the drug venetoclax, in combination with low-dose chemotherapy, to target and destroy stem cells in adults diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, work for which he received an LLS Career Development Program award in 2019. That award included funding that allowed Pollyea and his research team to conduct clinical trials on venetoclax.
“That award let us do so many different things and explore so many different ideas. We've learned so much, and we’re so much farther along now than where we were five years ago,” says Pollyea. “But at the same time, we still have so much to learn. It's been a steady, escalatory advancement in our knowledge, where each discovery is a nice jumping-off point for the next big thing. Ultimately, it’s all about helping patients with these diseases.”
Next steps
Pollyea’s work with venetoclax and leukemia stem cells continues, with new and upcoming studies on the effects of the medicine in younger populations as well as research into why some people don’t respond to venetoclax as well and how to overcome that resistance.
He is working with CU Cancer Center members Craig Jordan, PhD, and Andrew Kent, MD, PhD, on a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study on targeting mitochondrial calcium to eradicate leukemia-initiating cells, and with CU Cancer Center Deputy Director James DeGregori, PhD, on another NIH-funded study on using inhibitor of apoptosis proteins inhibition as a therapeutic strategy to target therapy-resistant leukemia initiating cells. Both research projects have prestigious R01 grants from the NIH.
“Some of our hypotheses about how we could use venetoclax weren't necessarily part of the conventional wisdom five years ago,” Pollyea says. “It's exciting to see how many of our theories were correct, and to see how others in the hematology community have built out parts of the story that are very complementary and exciting. We're all learning from each other.”