ACGT today announced that seed money provided for innovative T-Cell immunotherapy cell and gene therapy research has led to two successful Clinical Trials for treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia resulting in remissions in both children and adults who had no other hope of recovery.

Stamford, Connecticut (PRWEB) April 08, 2013

According to Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD, ACGT Scientific Advisory Council member and Research Fellow, and senior author of the Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia study published March 21st in the journal Science Translational Medicine, This is a very exciting finding for patients and a major achievement in the field of targeted immunotherapy. Sadelain explained that these successful treatments would not have been possible had not been for the startup funding from ACGT. It wasnt easy to get funding to support such innovative, unproved therapies. The grant from ACGT was our first major grant to launch our T-cell program. Dr. Sadelain is the Director of the Center for Cell Engineering and Gene Transfer Expression Laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Sadelain, and Dr. Carl H. June, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, were each awarded $1 million in ACGT Clinical Investigator grants in 2004 to fund research using immune-mediated gene therapy for the treatment of lymphoma or leukemia. They were the first two Clinical Translational grants that ACGT awarded. Just last week, ACGT received 49 letters of intent, with a majority focused on T-cell therapy research, in response to its Request for Applications for 2013 Clinical Translational grants that will be awarded this Spring.

Dr. June, ACGT Scientific Advisory Council member and leader of the team that successfully treated two young leukemia patients, Emma Whitehead and Maddie Major, and seven other adult leukemia patients at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) also commented on the cutting-edge research ACGT supported: "Funding was not available from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for gene therapy (in 2004). ACGT was the first to be there, to say that cell and gene therapies can be a new platform therapy, and giving literally lifesaving grants to scientists who cannot get them from the federal system."

ACGT is the only not-for-profit in the U.S. solely dedicated to cancer cell and gene therapy treatments for all types of cancer. 100% of contributions go directly to research. ACGT has funded 41 grants since its founding in 2001 totaling almost $24 million to fund both basic research and clinical translation. ACGT's Scientific Advisory Council, comprised of 16 renowned physicians and researchers, conducts a rigorous review process. Seventeen ACGT funded research projects have been approved for human clinical trials, 11 of which are underway. To donate, please visit http://www.acgtfoundation.org or call 203.358.8000.

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Press Contact:

Deborah Burns, 203.257.3163

deborah(at)burnscommunications(dot)net

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ACGT Provides Seed Money for T-Cell Immunotherapy Cell and Gene Therapy Research; Successful Clinical Trials for ...