Summer 2026
By Stevie Snow
Tomorrow’s cancer breakthroughs start with today’s research. Rooted in this belief, the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation awarded $1.4 million to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The funding supports two physician-scientists who are deepening our knowledge and use of immunotherapy, a newer cancer treatment that helps the immune system fight cancer cells.
“We want to empower the scientists who are advancing our knowledge of cancer and transforming treatment as we know it,” said Zach Handelman, vice president and treasurer at the Mathers Foundation. “We’re honored to fund the novel research at Dana-Farber that’s pushing boundaries and bringing new hope to patients.”
We’re honored to fund the novel research at Dana-Farber that’s pushing boundaries and bringing new hope to patients.
Zach Handelman, Mathers Charitable Foundation
Eric Smith, MD, PhD, director of translational research for immune effector cells at Dana-Farber, specializes in advancing cellular immunotherapy and rapidly translating those therapies from the lab to the patients who need them. An accomplished physician-scientist, Smith invented some of the first chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) used in CAR Tcell treatment for multiple myeloma.
Smith will use this critical funding from the Mathers Foundation for a project designed to bridge gene therapy and immunotherapy. Current immunotherapy approaches have positive response rates, but high costs mean they’re still out of reach for many patients. What’s more, relapse is a common challenge for those who receive immunotherapy.
Building on the success of gene and cell therapies, Smith will work to extend the durability of modified immune cells and increase accessibility by eliminating cost barriers.
Digging deeper into her lab’s previous research, Zuzana Tothova, MD, PhD, the Edward P. Evans Investigator in MDS Research, will use her grant to explore a potential connection between certain types of blood cancer and the success of immunotherapy strategies.
The connection starts in our DNA, where ancient viral remnants called endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are typically silenced. ERVs can be reactivated in multiple cancers, including myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), as recently shown by her lab.
Tothova’s lab unexpectedly discovered a protein complex that regulates ERV activity, and it may help explain why some MDS and AML patients are responsive to treatments including immunotherapy––a therapy that previous studies found less effective for MDS and AML.
Her findings have the potential to spark a new field of targeted immune based treatments for people with MDS, AML, and even other cancers where ERV reaction is common.
Patients and families turn to Dana-Farber because of the expertise in this type of cancer. That trust starts in the lab, with supporters like the Mathers Foundation making every discovery possible.