Shokeen Receives R01 Grant to Study Novel Multiple Myeloma Therapy

Monica Shokeen, PhD, associate professor of radiology, works in a lab.

Monica Shokeen, PhD, associate professor of radiology, received a 5-year R01 grant funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute to support her study of a promising therapy for multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma is the second most common, age-related hematological malignancy and to increase patient survival, clinicians need a new way to select effective and durable therapies for relapsed and refractory patients.

The grant supports the project, “Exploring CD38 molecular biology and imaging in multiple myeloma pathogenesis,” where Shokeen and her team have identified antibody-based treatments that target cluster of differentiation 38 (CD38), a transmembrane protein consistently expressed in multiple myeloma cells. They will use CD38-targeted, peptide-based PET imaging probes to explore basic cellular and molecular pathways as well as spatial relationships that govern multiple myeloma-associated CD38 expression, enzymatic activity and therapeutic response.