# Cancer Cell and Gene Therapy

> **NIH NIH P30** · BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2021 · $40,088

## Abstract

CANCER CELL AND GENE THERAPY (CCGT) PROGRAM PROJECT SUMMARY
The goals of the Cancer Cell and Gene Therapy (CCGT) Program are to incorporate advances in cellular and
gene therapy into the treatment of cancer. The CCGT Program is a sub-component of the Center for Cell and
Gene Therapy and has 21 Research members and 9 Clinical members from multiple departments at BCM,
including Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Pathology and Immunology, Molecular and Cell Biology, Neuroscience
and Molecular and Human Genetics. The Program received a total of $3.1 million in direct support from the NCI
last year and overall received $14.6 million in direct peer-reviewed funding and $23.1 million in total direct
funding. In the last 5 years, members of the Program published 412 cancer-related manuscripts in peer-reviewed
journals, of which 42% represented intra-programmatic collaborations and 31% inter-programmatic, while 37%
included external collaborators and 34% were published in journals with an Impact Factor >10. Our research
focuses on three themes: normal and malignant stem cells, adoptive immunotherapy of cancer, and improving
outcomes of stem cell transplantation for cancer. CCGT has basic, translational, and clinical research
components. Our basic investigators work on understanding the mechanisms by which normal and malignant
stem cell growth is controlled, and on the molecular and cellular interactions involved in the development of
tumor vasculature and stroma. These researchers are also identifying new targets for immunotherapy, and
optimizing presentation of weak tumor antigens to the immune system. Our translational investigators are moving
cell- and gene-based therapies from the bench to the bedside in a series of small-scale iterative laboratory-
clinical-laboratory protocols, and are also developing pivotal trials. We have a long history of successful and
timely implementation of clinical translational projects in gene and cellular therapy, and we have the resources
to supply and test all the clinical reagents required, through our clinical research infrastructure and the Cell
processing and Vector Production Shared Resource. Major accomplishments in the last 5 years include first-in-
man trials of 10 new cell types/constructs and transfer of several strategies to industry for late-phase testing. We
have shown activity of virus specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in virus-associated cancers (resulting in licensure
of the approach to three companies for late-phase trials) and in ongoing studies are showing anti-tumor activity
of genetically modified T cells in subjects with T cell lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, neuroblastoma, and
nasopharyngeal cancer. Our clinical researchers run the adult and (in collaboration with the Pediatric Cancer
Program) pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplant programs and are extending the applicability of
transplantation for malignancy by using pre-transplant immunotherapy to enable transplant and post-transplant
immunotherap...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10239131
- **Project number:** 5P30CA125123-15
- **Recipient organization:** BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** HELEN E HESLOP
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $40,088
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2007-07-01 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10239131

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10239131, Cancer Cell and Gene Therapy (5P30CA125123-15). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10239131. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*