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| Vol. 23, No. 5 |
| March 15, 2001 |
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Baylor Professor Receives Cancer Therapy Grant By LORI WILLIAMS Baylor College of Medicine Dr. Helen Heslop, professor of medicine and pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, has been awarded a $1.5 million grant to advance her work in cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Heslop is one of seven scientists in the United States to receive the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's 2000 Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award for Bench-to-Bedside Translational Research. Her research will focus on testing new concepts of immunotherapy in children and adults who are undergoing stem cell transplantation for malignant disease. Dr. Heslop hopes to improve upon the current post-transplant complications, which include relapse, secondary tumors induced by the Epstein-Barr virus and graft-versus-host disease. "This award is a tribute to the work Dr. Heslop has done in this developing field," said Dr. David Poplack, head of pediatric hematology-oncology at Baylor and director of Texas Children's Cancer Center. "She continues to be on the leading edge of research in bringing these new treatments from laboratory to patients." Dr. Heslop is a faculty member at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor, The Methodist Hospital and Texas Children's Hospital. She also serves as director of the Adult Stem Cell Transplant Center Program at Methodist and is on the faculty at Texas Children's Cancer Center. "Our goal is to have safer and less toxic treatments for patients," Dr. Heslop said. "Our research aims to selectively target tumor cells, so the therapy will not carry the same systemic side effects of chemotherapy." Dr. Heslop's team is currently working on immunotherapy for bone marrow transplants, Hodgkin's disease and solid organ transplants. In the future, the team will target other types of cancer, such as neuroblastoma and leukemia. "Cellular and genetic therapies of the type that Dr. Heslop works with have the potential to make major changes in the types of diseases we treat and the way that we treat them," said Dr. Malcolm Brenner, director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy. "I am delighted that the importance of her studies has been recognized with this award." Dr. Heslop said this award will support postdoctoral fellows in her lab.
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