Peter Vanderslice, PhD, Senior Investigator and Director, MCRL, Molecular Cardiology Research, was highlighted in a recent announcement from 7 Hills Pharma, a clinical-stage pharma company leveraging a novel mechanism of action to safely enhance the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies, regarding a $4.7 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to support its cell/gene therapy (CGT) development program.

This grant will allow 7 Hills to advance 7HP935, the Company’s lead first-in-class small molecule to augment CGT, through a Phase I clinical trial. 7HP’s CGT program has previously been awarded over $3.2 million via multiple awards from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, including STTR grants R41HL129612 and R42HL129612, and Catalyze grant R33HL161778.

Vanderslice was quoted in the 7 Hills announcement, “We are proud to continue our collaboration with 7 Hills and inspired by this technology being successfully applied across multiple indications. 7HP935 is the second molecule discovered at THI that will enter clinical trials with 7 Hills following 7HP349, also known as alintegimod. I am particularly gratified that CPRIT appreciated how the 7 Hills approach could help address racial disparities in HSCT, as Black and Hispanic patients with AML and ALL suffer from a high risk of not finding a matched donor.”

Read the full announcement here.