Summer 2026
By Jane Anderson
Made possible by a $1.6 billion public commitment and guided by its mission to accelerate medical breakthroughs, scientific education, research opportunities, and workforce expansion, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) aims to accelerate breakthroughs and opportunities for all.
As part of its Commonwealth-wide funding efforts, the MLSC awarded five grants, totaling more than $2.2 million, to Dana-Farber’s Jose Cancelas, MD, PhD, Laurie H. Glimcher, MD, Henry Long, PhD, Filipa Lynce, MD, and the Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (CURE) program.
“The Dana-Farber researchers receiving these awards are advancing groundbreaking ideas that have the potential to reshape how we understand and treat cancer,” said MLSC President and CEO Kirk Taylor, MD. “At the same time, the CURE program is giving students the opportunity to step into the lab, contribute to impactful projects, and begin building careers that will drive the future of scientific discovery. The MLSC is proud to support both the scientists pushing the industry forward today and the next generation of students who will lead for years to come.”
Cancelas is expanding and enhancing the 12-month Cell Therapy GxP Specialist Certificate Program, which equips graduates with the expertise to develop, manufacture, and oversee cell therapy products intended to regenerate tissues and strengthen the immune system’s capacity to combat cancer. Manufacturing cellular therapies involves collecting cells from blood or other tissues, modifying them ex vivo, and reinfusing them into the patient to restore tissue-forming cells and/or target malignant cells.
Glimcher, Dana-Farber’s past president and CEO, is investigating ways to support post-menopausal patients, who frequently struggle with osteoporosis and lack effective treatments. With her grant, she is studying a new bone-targeted gene therapy that has the potential to prevent and reverse bone loss with a single treatment while limiting side effects. Glimcher will build upon her prior work to further engineer and optimize this treatment, with the goal of paving the way for a future phase I clinical trial.
Immunotherapy, which leverages the body’s immune system to fight cancer, shows promise against advanced bladder cancer, but many patients experience serious side effects and it is challenging to determine who will benefit in advance. Long aims to uncover predictive biomarkers that can identify which patients might respond to this treatment approach so he can create better and more targeted treatments.
Lynce’s grant focuses on hereditary breast cancer and developing novel treatment strategies for patients with BRCA1/2 mutations. Although PARP inhibitors are currently the standard of care for many of these patients, most eventually stop responding. To overcome this challenge, Lynce is studying pre-and post-treatment blood samples from patients with advanced breast and gynecological cancers receiving PARP inhibitors to identify new potential resistance mechanisms.
With their grant, the CURE team is preparing high school and college students for meaningful careers in the biomedical field. Through paid, mentored lab placements, structured coursework, and professional development, participants gain core competencies while contributing to ongoing cancer and broader biomedical research, ensuring a pipeline for the next generation of life science professionals.
“The MSLC’s tremendous investment in Dana-Farber throughout the years has helped to foster an ecosystem of discovery and progress that will shape life sciences here and across Massachusetts for decades to come,” said Glimcher.