Featured Expert:
Maria Teresa Bertilaccio, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Dr. Sabrina Bertilaccio highlights her recent research, supported by the CLL Global Research Foundation. Dr. Bertalaccio goes on to share how the foundation accelerates groundbreaking research, allowing researchers to take risks and fast-track breakthroughs from the lab to clinical applications, with the ultimate goal of eradicating CLL.
Transcript
Dr. Bertilaccio:
I’m Sabrina Bertilaccio. I’m faculty in the department of leukemia at MD Anderson Cancer Center. So, I was recruited in 2016 by Dr. Keating at MD Anderson Cancer Center within a research program funded by the CLL Global Foundation. So, this research program was initially on the microenvironment in CLL, and overall, the CLL Global, thanks to this research, gave me the opportunity actually to work at MD Anderson, the US top hospital for cancer care, but also to collaborate with renowned experts in the field. So, the CLL Global impacted my research since the beginning here.
I am studying the immune system of patients with CLL. Naturally, the immune system helps us to fight pathogens and fight cancer. But during cancer development, it is actually doing the contrary. So, it’s helping cancer to grow. So, my idea is to rewrite the code of DNA of the immune system, and to actually repair these functional immune cells to help patients. So, with this patent, we are exploring this approach for therapeutic purposes to help patients with CLL, but also, we hope, other disease and other cancers.
The value for a meeting like this organized by the CLL Global Foundation is actually to put together the renowned experts from all the over the world to discuss about science. About our results. To get new ideas, and to establish new crucial collaboration for research. So, it is absolutely essential for science and the research to have this kind of meeting. So, I’m very thankful to the CLL Global Foundation for organizing and funding these meetings.
So, the philanthropic donation helps us to take some risks. More risks in research. And to accelerate a process that normally is very slow that goes from the basic research at the bench to the clinical development for clinical application at the bedside. So, it’s absolutely crucial to have philanthropic support. And I believe that with the continued philanthropic support, we will have the tools to finally eradicate this disease.
