# Bispecific Antibody Maintenance Therapy after Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplant

> **NIH NIH K08** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $237,049

## Abstract

Project Summary
Dr. Jonathan Webster is an Assistant Professor of Oncology in the Division of Hematologic Malignancies at The
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is a member of the Leukemia Group and has completed the
Science of Clinical Investigation curriculum at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His primary
mentor, Dr. Richard Jones, is a Professor of Oncology and the Director of the Bone Marrow Transplantation
Program. His co-mentor, Dr. Ravi Varadhan, is a Professor of Oncology in the Division of Biostatistics and
Bioinformatics. His advisory committee includes Drs. Gojo and Smith, faculty experts in leukemia clinical trials,
and Dr. Luznik, a laboratory-based expert in allogeneic blood or marrow transplantation (alloBMT) and
immunology. Support from the K08 award will enable Dr. Webster to gain additional research skills, receive
mentorship in authoring publications, develop grants, and perform his research project. Dr. Webster's goal is to
become an independent investigator and leader in the emerging field of post-alloBMT therapies. The use of
nonmyeloablative conditioning (NMAC) coupled with improvements in supportive care and graft-versus-host
disease (GVHD) prophylaxis, such as high-dose post-transplantation cyclophosphamide (PTCy), have led
disease relapse to overtake transplant-related mortality as the major cause of treatment failure following alloBMT
for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Two factors play a particularly
important role in post-alloBMT relapse: peri-transplant measurable residual disease (MRD), and the ability of
donor T lymphocytes to generate a graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect. The prophylactic post-transplant use of
targeted therapies reduces relapses in high risk leukemias, but most patients lack targetable mutations. In this
application, Dr. Webster proposes to examine a more broadly applicable approach using the bispecific antibodies
blinatumomab and flotetuzumab as post-alloBMT maintenance therapy in ALL and AML, respectively. Dr.
Webster has significant preliminary data demonstrating the safety of blinatumomab in this setting and the ease
with which post-transplant maintenance therapies can be given following PTCy. The overarching goal of this
proposal is to decrease relapse following alloBMT in ALL and AML. He will achieve this by: 1. Conducting a
clinical trial of blinatumomab as post-transplant maintenance to assess safety and relapse-free survival. 2.
Conducting a clinical trial of flotetuzumab in post-transplant patients to assess safety. 3. Assessing the impact
of post-transplant maintenance therapies on the activation and expansion of T lymphocytes, T cell receptor
(TCR) diversity, T cell gene expression, and the depletion of cells expressing the target antigens (CD19 and
CD123). These studies will inform the development of randomized trials of post-transplant maintenance
therapies at the cooperative group level. Data regarding the effic...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10889029
- **Project number:** 5K08CA276987-02
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Jonathan Allen Webster
- **Activity code:** K08 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $237,049
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-07-17 → 2028-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10889029

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10889029, Bispecific Antibody Maintenance Therapy after Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplant (5K08CA276987-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10889029. Licensed CC0.

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