"Advancing research in the field of blood cancer therapy is immensely important, because it is the only way we can win the battle against this life-threatening disease," says Professor Dr. Thomas Klingebiel, Chairman of the Medical Council, DKMS Stiftung Leben Spenden. An important aspect of this is the promotion of young scientists: Every year, DKMS Stiftung Leben Spenden awards the DKMS John Hansen Research Grant to up to four young scientists in order to secure medical progress in the field of stem cell transplantation and cell therapy for the future.

While in the past two years only women were awarded, this year four young men have prevailed among the applicants with their pioneering research projects:

Ignazio Caruana, PhD, Department of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation at the University Children's Hospital of Würzburg, Germany (project title: Inducible CAR-T-cells derived from a donor-derived peptide-stimulated oligoclonal T-cell population with on/off-switches for targeted immunotherapy post-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation)

Shuichiro Takashima PhD, MD, Department of Medicine, Hanash Laboratory, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, USA (project title: STAT1-driven orchestration of the intestinal stem cell response to gastrointestinal graft-versus-host disease)

Esteban Arrieta-Bolaños, PhD, Institute for Experimental Cellular Therapy, University Hospital Essen, Germany (project title: Unraveling HLA-DM-sensitive T-cell alloreactivity against HLA-DP: mining for novel tools in leukemia immunotherapy)

Miguel Álvaro-Benito, PhD, Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany (project title: Beyond the classics: functional profiling of ncHLAII genetic variation).

John A. Hansen, who the grant is named after, was a long-standing member of the DKMS Stiftung Leben Spenden Foundation Board and the DKMS Medical Council. The DKMS John Hansen Research Grant is a tribute to his life's work as an internationally respected and outstanding oncologist, leader in the field of immunogenetics, and a kind-hearted empathetic physician.

The application period for the John Hansen Research Grant 2022 opens on August 3, 2021, and interested applicants are encouraged to email grant@dkms.org at any time.