Program Director/Principal Investigator :
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
NAME
POSITION TITLE
Cheryl L. Willman, M.D.
Professor of Pathology and Medicine
The Maurice and Marguerite Liberman
Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research
Director and CEO, UNM Cancer Center
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
eRA COMMONS USER NAME
cwillman
EDUCATION/TRAINING
DEGREE
(if
applicable)
YEAR(s)
St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
BA
1977
Chemistry
Mayo Medical School, Rochester, MN
MD
1981
Medicine
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Residency
1984
Anatomic Path/Hemepath
UNM, Albuquerque, NM; HHMI/ U Wash, Seattle, WA
Fellowship
1986-1989
INSTITUTION AND LOCATION
FIELD OF STUDY
NIH Physician Scientist
A. Personal Statement
My laboratory is focused on the use of comprehensive genomic technologies, next generation sequencing
methods, and computational and statistical modeling tools to discover new genetic abnormalities in acute
leukemia that may serve as targets for diagnosis or therapy. I lead multidisciplinary teams of clinicians and
scientists who are focused on: 1) translating molecular discoveries (prognostic genes and signatures) to the
clinical setting (under CLIA and in the context of NCI clinical trials) where they are being used as integral or
integrated markers for patient screening and therapeutic targeting; and, 2) developing new therapeutic
approaches, including nanotherapeutics, to target these mutations in pre-clinical animal models and ultimately
human clinical trials. I am PI of a NCI SPECS II Grant, a NCI Nanotechnology Platform Partnership Grant, a
Lead Investigator in the NCI TARGET Project in High-Risk ALL (www.target.cancer.gov), a Project PI in a newly
funded LLS SCOR in High Risk Leukemia, and a Project PI in a newly funded grant from the St. Baldrick’s
Foundation which supports integral correlative studies in a COG high risk ALL trial where our gene expression
classifiers and next generation sequencing methods are being used for patient molecular characterization and
therapeutic targeting. As Director of the UNM Cancer Center and a member of the NCI Board of Scientific
Counselors and the NCI National Clinical Trials Network Working Group, I have extensive experience in
development, leadership, and evaluation of NCI Cancer Centers and the NCI Clinical Trials Program.
B. Positions and Honors
1984-1989
NIH Physician Scientist Training Award NIDDK: K11-DK-01284 (Mentors: T.B. Tomasi, MD,
PhD, UNM; Roger M. Perlmutter, M.D., Ph.D., HHMI, University of Washington)
1986-1991
Assistant Professor, Pathology, UNM School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM
1987-2010
Chair, Southwest Oncology Group, Leukemia Translational Medicine Committee
1991-1995
Associate Professor of Pathology with Tenure, UNM School of Medicine
1992-1996
National Institutes of Health, Hematology-2 Study Section
1995-Present
Professor, Pathology and Medicine, UNM School of Medicine
1996-2001
PI & Program Director, UNM Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Resources Program
1998-Present
Children’s Oncology Group, Leukemia Reference Laboratories; ALL Executive Committee
1998-2002
Councilor; Executive Committee, American Society of Hematology
1999-Present
Director and CEO, University of New Mexico Cancer Center
2000-2005
National Institutes of Health, Hematology 2 / Hematopoiesis Study Sections; Chair (2003-05)
2000-09, 2012- Medical and Scientific Advisory Board, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America
2002-2008
Scientific Advisory Board; Chair, Bioscience Review Panel, Sandia National Laboratories
2007-2010
Board of Directors, American Association of Cancer Institutes (AACI)
2010-Present
NCI Board of Scientific Counselors; Scientific Advisory Committee – NCI Frederick National
Cancer Research Laboratory
2010-Present
NCI Steering Committee on the Hematologic Malignancies: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
(ALL) and Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Working Groups
2012-Present
Member, External Advisory Board, NCI Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities
PHS 398/2590 (Rev. 06-09)
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Program Director/Principal Investigator :
2012-Present
Member, NCI National Clinical Trials Network Working Group
Honors: 1973: State of Iowa Scholar. 1977: St. Olaf, David E. Gaardner Award-Chemistry; Phi Beta Kappa.
1985: Stowell-Orbison Research Award, International Academy of Pathology. 1994: Benjamin Castleman
Award, International Academy of Pathology. 1995: Women in Science Hall of Fame, US Dept. of Energy. 1998:
President, Association for Molecular Pathology. 1998: Young Investigator Award, US-Canadian Division of the
International Academy of Pathology. 2001:16th Annual Governor’s Award for Outstanding New Mexico Woman.
2006: New Mexico Distinguished Public Service Award. 2012: New Mexico Award for Technology/Engineering;
2013: New Mexico “La Estrella” Award, for New Mexico’s most outstanding woman leader.
C. Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications (From > 220)
1. Mullighan CG, Zhang J, Harvey RC, Schulman BA, Phillips LA, Su X, Devidas M, Atlas SR, Chen IM, Clifford
R, Gerhard D, Carroll WL, Reaman GH, Smith M, Downing JR, Hunger SP, and Willman CL. 2009. JAK
mutations in high risk childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2009. Jun 9;
106(23):9414-8. PMCID: PMC2695045
2. Zhang J, Mullighan CG, Harvey RC, Wu G, Chen X, Edmonson M, Buetow KH, Carroll WL, Chen I-M,
Devidas M, Gerhard DS, Loh ML, Reaman GH, Relling MV, Camitta BM, Bowman WP, Smith MA, Willman
CL#, Downing JR#, and Hunger SP.# (# senior authors who contributed equally). Mutations in the RAS
signaling, B-cell development, TP53/RB1, and JAK signaling pathways are common in high risk B-precursor
childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A report from the Children’s Oncology Group NCI TARGET Project.
2011. Blood. 118(11):3080-7. PMCID: PMC3175785
3. Ashley CE, Carnes CE, Phillips GK, Padilla D, Brown PA, Hanna TN, Liu J, Comyford B, Carroll N, Jiang X,
Spielman I, Willman CL, Petsev DN, Evans DG, Chackerian B, Wharton W, Peabody DS, and Brinker CJ.
The targeted delivery of multicomponent cargoes to cancer cells by nanoporous particle-supported lipid
bilayers. Nature Materials. 2011. May; 10(5):389-97. Epub, 2011, April 17. PMCID: PMC3287066. (Cover).
4. Ashley CE, Carnes EC, Phillips GK, Durfee PN, Buley M, Padilla DP, Phillips B, Carter MC, Willman CL,
Brinker CJ, Chackerian B, Wharton, W, and Peabody DS. Cell-specific delivery of diverse cargos by
bacteriophage MS2 virus-like particles. ACS Nano. 2011. Jul 26; 5(7):5729-45. (Cover). PMCID:
PMC3144304.
5. Kang H, Wilson CS, Harvey RC, Chen IM, Murphy MH, Atlas SR, Bedrick EJ, Devidas M, Carroll AJ,
Robinson BW, Stam RW, Valsecchi MG, Pieters R, Heerema NA, Hilden JM, Felix CA, Reaman GH,
Camitta B, Winick N, Carroll WL, Dreyer ZE, Hunger SP, Willman CL. Gene expression profiles predictive
of outcome and age in infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a Children's Oncology Group study. Blood.
2012 Feb 23;119(8):1872-81. PMCID: PMC3293641.
6. Ashley CA, Carnes EC, Epler KE, Padilla DP, Phillips GK, Carroll NK, Castillo RE, Wilkinson DC, Wilkinson
BS, Burgard CA, Kalinich RM, Townson JL, Chackerian B, Willman CL, Peabody DS, Pestev DN, Wharton
W, and Brinker CJ. Delivery of Small Interfering RNA by Peptide-Targeted Mesoporous Silica NanoparticleSupported Lipid Bilayers. ACS Nano. 2012. Mar 27; 6(3):2174-88. PMCID: PMC3332089
7. Xu H, Cheng C, Devidas D, Pei D, Fan Y, Yang W, Neale G, Scheet P, González-Burchard E, Torgerson
DG, Eng C, Dean M, Antillon F, Winick NJ, Martin PL, Willman CL, Camitta BM, Reaman GH, Carroll WL,
Loh M, Evans WE, Pui CH, Relling MV, Hunger SP, and Yang JJ. ARID5B genetic polymorphisms
contribute to racial disparities in the incidence and treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. J
Clinical Oncol. 2012. Mar 1; 30(7):751-7. Epub Jan 30. PMCID: PMC3295551.
8. Chen IM, Harvey RC, Mullighan CG, Gastier-Foster J, Wharton W, Kang H, Borowitz MJ, Camitta BM,
Carroll AJ, Devidas M, Pullen DJ, Payne-Turner D, Tasian SK, Reshmi S, Cottrell CE, Reaman GH,
Bowman WP, Carroll WL, Loh ML, Winick NJ, Hunger SP, Willman CL. Outcome modeling with CRLF2,
IKZF1, JAK, and minimal residual disease in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a Children's Oncology
Group study. Blood. 2012 Apr 12;119(15):3512-22. PMCID: PMC3325039.
9. Tasian SK, Doral MY, Mullighan CG, Borowitz MJ, Wood BL, Chen IM, Harvey RC, Gastier-Foster JM,
Willman CL, Hunger SP, and Loh ML. Aberrant JAK/STAT and PI3K/mTOR pathway signaling occurs in
human CRLF2-rearranged B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemias. 2012. Blood. July 26; 120(4):83342. PMCID: PMC3412346
10. Roberts KG, Morin R, Zhang J, Hirst M, Zhao Y, Su, X, Chen S-C, Payne-Turner D, Churchman M, Chen
X, Harvey R, Kasap C, Yan C, Becksfort J, Finney RP, Teachey D, Maude S, Tse, K, Moore R, Jones S,
Mungall K, Birol I, Edmonson M, Hu Y, Buetow KE, Chen I-M, Carroll WL, Wei L, Ma J, Kleppe M, Levine R,
Garcia-Manero G, Larson E, Shah N, Devidas M, Reaman G, Smith M, Paugh S, Evans WE, Grupp S, Jeha
PHS 398/2590 (Rev. 06/09)
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Program Director/Principal Investigator :
S, Pui C-H, Gerhard DS, Downing JR, Willman CL, Loh M, Hunger SP, Marra M, Mullighan CG. Novel
genetic alterations activating kinase and cytokine receptor signaling in high-risk acute lymphoblastic
leukemia. Cancer Cell. 2012. Aug 14; 22(2):153-66. PMCID: PMC3422513.
11. Maude SL, Tasian SK, Vincent T, Hall JW, Sheen C, Roberts KG, Seif AE, Barrett DM, Chen IM, Collins JR,
Mullighan CG, Hunger SP, Harvey RC, Willman CL, Fridman JS, Loh ML, Grupp SA, and Teachey DT.
Targeting Jak1/2 and mTOR in murine xenograft models of Ph-like acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood.
2012 Oct 25; 120(17):3510-8. PMCID: PMC3482861.
12. Yang JJ, Cheng C, Devidas M, Cao X, Campana D, Yang W, Fan Y, Neale G, Cox N, Borowitz MJ, Winick
NJ, Martin PL, Willman CL, Bowman WP, Reaman GH, Carroll WL, Loh M, Evans WE, Pui C-H, Hunger
SP, and Relling MV. Genome-wide association study identifies germline polymorphisms associated with
relapse of childhood ALL. Blood. 2012 Nov 15; 120(20):4197-204. PMCID: PMC3501717
13. Loh ML, Zhang J, Mullighan CG, Harvey RC, Roberts K, Payne-Turner D, Kang H, Wu G, Chen X, Becksfort
J, Edmonson M, Buetow KH, Carroll WL, Chen I-Ming, Devidas M, Gerhard DS, Bowman P, Larsen E,
Raetz E, Smith M, Downing JR, Willman CL, and Hunger, SP. Tyrosine kinome sequencing of high risk
pediatric ALL: TARGET Project Update. Blood. 2013 Jan 17;121(3):485-8. PMCID: PMC3548168
14. Parham RR, Geng H, Chen Z, Chan LN, Jumaa H, Melnick A, Paietta E, Carroll WL, Willman CL, Lefebvre
V, and Müschen M. SOX4 enables oncogenic survival signals in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood.
2013 Jan 3;121(1):148-552012. PMCID: PMC3538327
15. Hsieh YT, Gang EJ, Geng H, Park E, Huantes S, Chudziak D, Dauber K, Schaefer P, Scharman C, Shimada
H, Shojaee S, Klemm L, Parameswaran R, Loh M, Kang ES, Koo HH, Hoffman WK, Andrade J, Crooks GM,
Willman CL, Müschen M, Papayannopoulou T, Heisterkamp N, Bönig H, Kim YM. Integrin alpha4 blockade
sensitizes drug resistant pre-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia to chemotherapy. Blood. 2013 Mar
7;121(10):1814-8. PMCID: PMC3591800
D. Research Support
Ongoing Research Support
2 P30 CA118100 (PI: Willman)
09/01/10-08/31/15
NCI
University of New Mexico Cancer Center Support Grant
This Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) provides NCI support for leadership administration, programs,
shared resources, clinical trials support, and developmental funds for the UNM NCI-Designated Cancer Center.
1 U01 CA151792 (Contact PI: Willman, Multi PI: Brinker)
08/01/10-08/31/15
NCI
Nanotechnology Platform Partnership: Peptide-Directed Protocells and Virus-Like Particles: New Nanoparticle
Platforms for Targeted Cellular Delivery of Multicomponent Cargoes
The goal of this project is to develop nanoparticle platforms to target delivery of a variety of different cargos to
acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells and solid tumors (ovarian cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma).
1 U01 CA157937 (Contact PI: Willman, Multi PI: Hunger)
08/01/11-07/31/16
NCI
SPECS II: Molecular Signatures for Outcome Prediction and Therapeutic Targeting in ALL
The goal of this project is to develop gene expression classifiers and next generation sequencing methods as
integral and integrated markers for targeted therapy in NCI Sponsored Clinical Trials in COG, ECOG, and the
Alliance.
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society SCOR (PI: Carroll)
10/01/13-08/31/18
LLS
Project 4: Targeted Nanotherapeutics for ALL Therapy (PI: Willman; Co-PIs: Brinker (UNM), Grupp
(CHOP/UPENN))
SCOR Project 4 goals are focused on the production and synthesis of novel therapeutic nanocarriers
(“protocells”) targeted to either CRLF2 or CD19; such protocells will encapsidate imaging agents that allow
monitoring of their tracking and uptake in vitro and in vivo and/or therapeutic agents directed towards ALL cells
St. Baldrick’s Foundation (PI: Hunger)
PHS 398/2590 (Rev. 06/09)
07/01/13-06/30/18
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Program Director/Principal Investigator :
Testing Targeted Therapy in Philadelphia Chromosome-like (Ph-like) ALL
The UNM component (Project PI: Willman) is focused on the implementation of retrospective and prospective
screening of pediatric ALL patients classified as high or standard risk for the Ph-like (BCR-ABL1-like) genotype,
using a gene expression-based molecular classifier developed at UNM which has been converted to a low
density array (LDA) card which can be utilized in a CLIA-approved clinical diagnostic setting in the context of
NCI-sponsored trials. Application to FDA for an IVD is in progress so that this classifier and next generation
sequencing methods can be used as integral markers in a new high risk ALL trial in COG where ALL patients
positive in the LDA screen will be further characterized molecularly using transcriptomic sequencing methods
(RNAseq) and then targeted to combination therapies incorporating specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
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