Julie O'Neal, PhD

• CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma
• Novel therapeutics for multiple myeloma
• Genomics and biology of multiple myeloma

Although outcomes for multiple myeloma have improved, most patients die from relapsed disease. My research focus is to further our understanding of the biology of multiple myeloma so we can use new information to better identify, design, and test novel therapies that will improve outcomes of myeloma patients. Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) proteins are hybrid proteins expressed on T cells (CAR-T) that kill cells expressing a specific target protein on their surface. We are using preclinical myeloma models to test efficacy of tumor cells (CAR-T) with the goal to generate a CAR product that will be used to effectively cure myeloma patients. In addition to a panel of targets already being tested, we are using expression and proteomic analysis to identify novel myeloma CAR targets. We are also exploring other immune cell types that may prove useful for expressing CAR proteins and killing tumor cells.