The five-year, $500,000 grant will fund Teitell's work on the world's first animal model for mature human B-cell lymphomas.
Teitell's discovery of the model was detailed in October in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"The society awards Scholar grants to highly qualified investigators who have demonstrated their ability to conduct original research into leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma," said Dr. Marshall Lichtman, the society's executive vice president of research and medical affairs. "We encourage and support outstanding scientists at different states in their careers and believe these research efforts will help to accelerate outcomes that prolong, enhance and save the lives of people battling blood cancers."
"I'm thrilled to receive this important award since it will potentially speed the day when effective therapies for certain immune system malignancies will become available," said Teitell, a UCLA assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine.
The development by Teitell and his team of the first animal model for mature human B?cell lymphomas may lead to the uncovering of the genetic mutations that cause these types of cancer. About 85 percent of all lymphomas are mature B-cell type.
"What we can do now is grow cell lines out of this model to determine which cancer-causing companion mutations arise," Teitell said.
Teitell, collaborator Randolph Wall, and research team Katrina Hoyer and Samuel French had previously identified an abnormality in a gene called T-cell leukemia 1 (TCL1) in patients with B-cell lymphomas, especially in those suffering from AIDS. They wondered what would happen if they developed an animal model with abnormally expressed TCL1. Would the model develop cancer?
Teitell and his team got more than they expected -- animals with abnormally regulated TCL1 developed three different types of lymphoma.
B-cell lymphomas include both Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Specifically, the three types of B-cell lymphoma that grew out of Teitell's animal model were Burkitt-like lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular center cell lymphoma, all of which are classified as non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.
Now the team wants to know why these three forms arose in the same genetic background.
Teitell theorizes that there may be different cell pathways -- or highways that cells use to send signals -- involved in the three different types of lymphoma. If Teitell and his team can identify the pathways, they can attempt to block them with new drugs, Teitell said, akin to hitting the brake on a car or shutting off a light switch. The idea is to interrupt the cell signal before it triggers the genetic mutation that causes the cancer to begin to grow.
The Scholar Award will fund this research.
Lymphomas are cancers that start in lymphoid tissue, also called lymphatic tissue. Lymphoid tissue is found in many places throughout the body, including lymph nodes, the thymus, the spleen, the tonsils and adenoids, in the bone marrow, and scattered within other systems, such as the digestive and respiratory systems.
About 61,000 Americans will develop lymphomas, and 26,000 people will die of the disease this year alone, according to the American Cancer Society.
For more information about UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, its people and resources, visit its Web site at www.cancer.mednet.ucla.edu.