Mary Mohrin, Ph.D., assistant professor in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine's Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology, has been awarded a 2026-2028 New Investigator Research Grant from the Leukemia Research Foundation. The grants - $150,000 over a two-year period - have been awarded to 20 investigators from across the country and beyond.
Dr. Mohrin’s project, “A nucleolar stress response axis: using SIRT7 to predict and potentiate menin inhibitors in NPM1-mutated AML,” specifically focuses on the cell biology of approximately one-third of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients who have an NPM1 gene mutation.
Currently, there is no good way to predict which AML patients will respond well to “menin inhibitor” pills and which ones will not. She and her team will test whether levels of SIRT7, a stress-response protein, can predict response to menin inhibitors, and whether boosting SIRT7 makes these drugs work better. If successful, this work will deliver a practical laboratory test to guide menin inhibitor use and lay the groundwork for combination therapies that more effectively eradicate NPM1-mutated AML while minimizing unnecessary treatment.
Overall, research projects selected this year span a range of topics to advance discoveries in one of these four areas:
- Cancer cell biology, including employing artificial intelligence to guide therapy development
- Treatments, including those for rarer leukemias
- Causes and risk factors, including how chromosomal changes can occur with AML
- Relapse prevention, including the most common type of childhood leukemia
In total, the Leukemia Research Foundation has invested $3 million this year in leukemia and MDS research. This is in addition to currently funded leukemia research for the 2025-2027 period, as well as the hundreds of other previously funded cutting-edge projects. Overall, the foundation has funded nearly 800 projects since its inception.
To learn more about the Leukemia Research Foundation’s New Investigator Research Grant Program and the deadlines for the 2027 grant program, visit leukemiarf.org/research.
For additional information about the Leukemia Research Foundation, visit: www.leukemiarf.org