PCF investigator Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health Lorelei Mucci describes how PCF’s Venture Philanthropy personally affected her: “I was awarded a PCF Young Investigator Award at a very early part of my own career and that was an investment in me as a researcher. That funding allowed me to develop a whole new area of research – I was able to apply for grants from the National Cancer Institute, the DOD, and other foundations. So, I took that initial $275,000 investment and grew it into what is now a research program of more than 10 million dollars. So that small investment in me as a young investigator has turned into a much larger investment in research and public health in prostate cancer.”

In June, 2011 a “proof of concept” paper was published showing a comprehensive response to CAR T-cell therapy in three leukemia patients. There was absolutely no indication that the research would apply to solid tumors. But the promise of this new treatment piqued the interest of PCF’s CEO Dr. Johnathan Simons and Chief Science Officer Dr. Howard Soule. They observed that all three patient responses to CAR T were in one form of leukemia that flies a specific indicator flag (CD19).  Because PCF had funded over $20 million in research on that indicator flag (CD19) in prostate cancer, Soule and Simons saw potential.  Just hours after he published that first result, Dr. Carl June got a call from PCF soliciting him to lead a $1,000,000 team science award. Simons and Soule agreed to provide June with data from 6 other labs, if he was interested in extending his research in leukemia into solid tumors. Three days later Dr. June had assembled a bare-bones team. Within 3 weeks he had a team of researchers in prostate cancer that he’d never met before, eager to buckle down and expand the work.

Within 6 months June had gotten positive results in solid tumors in mice that triggered millions more in investment, eventually leading to a clinical trial of 40 human patients that is now ongoing.