Laura Berenice Geraldino Pardilla, MD, MSc

Dr. Amengual is the Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, Center for Lymphoid Malignancies, and Hebert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center here at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Amengual obtained a degree in Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University where she graduated with honors. She attained her Medical Doctorate from New York Medical College, followed by a residency in Internal Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Amengual then went on to complete her fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at the NYU Langone Medical Center, where she participated in the Physician-Scientist Training Program and graduated as a Dean’s Scholar. She is the recipient of several awards and scholarships for her research, including the Irving Scholarship, the Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research and as a Scholar of the Amos Medical Faculty Development Award –Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Society of Hematology. She was also selected to participate in the prestigious American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)/American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Vail Workshop Methods in Clinical Cancer Research, the European Hematology Association/American Society of Hematology Translational Research Training Program and the South West Oncology Group (SWOG) Leadership Academy. These competitive programs select the most promising faculty for enriched development and have laid the foundation for her research. She has now served on the faculty or review committee of several of these programs. As an R01-funded physician-scientist, Dr. Amengual is focused on translating the latest scientific discoveries regarding cancer cell behavior into novel treatment platforms. She aims to translate observations and concepts developed in the laboratory directly into patient care. Specifically, she is focused on combination epigenetic targeting for both B-cell and T-cell lymphomas. She continues to develop new pharmacologic strategies directed at altering these diseases at their genetic roots, now collaborating with investigators from backgrounds of diverse scientific expertise. Dr. Amengual has been studying the effects HDAC inhibitors in combination with EZH2 inhibitors to capitalize on two common mutations driving growth of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma cells. In addition, she has studied targeting the BCL6:p53 pathway in order to shift the balance of oncogene and tumor suppressor function using novel therapeutic approaches. For T-cell lymphoma Dr. Amengual has led a clinical trial combining HDAC inhibitors with the novel antifolate drug, pralatrexate. The pralatrexate plus romidepsin combination has led to dramatic responses in patients with relapsed T-cell lymphoma and will serve as the basis of more trials to come aimed at improving outcomes with patients with these diseases. Building on these discoveries, Dr. Amengual is now evaluating the interplay of epigenetics with immune surveillance and endogenous retroviral expression in the setting of lymphoma. Dr. Amengual has lectured at academic institutions and conferences around the world, and at forums such as the Lymphoma Research Foundation and the American Hematology Society’s Highlights of ASH. She has published numerous chapters and peer reviewed articles on the biology and treatment of lymphoma, and serves as a Scientific Reviewer for a number of journals in the field, including Journal of Clinical Oncology and as an Editorial Board Member of Clinical Cancer Research. She has sat on grant review and abstract review committees for meetings such as the American Society of Hematology where she has also chaired sessions, American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. She is actively involved in the NCI’s National Clinical Trial Network, SWOG, as a Lymphoma Working Group Committee Member. Dr. Amengual is involved in numerous clinical trials for lymphoma, enabling our patients to access the best opportunities for the treatment of their disease. Dr. Amengual has clinical expertise in lymphoma, HIV- and EBV-related hematologic illnesses.

Gulam Manji, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Manji received his M.D. degree from Ross University School of Medicine in 2009 and completed his residency in internal medicine at Albany Medical College. He then completed his fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, where his clinical focus was on the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies, melanoma, and sarcoma under the mentorship of Dr. Gary Schwartz, Chief of Hematology and Oncology. Dr. Manji conducts translational research with the overall goal to developing new treatments for cancer. His focus is in gastrointestinal malignancies, particularly pancreas adenocarcinoma, on which he is conducting preclinical combination immunotherapy studies on genetically engineered mice with pancreas cancer in the Olive laboratory at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. The combination immunotherapy preclinical proposal received the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology-2015. The goal of these preclinical studies is to bring promising new therapies to the clinic in an early phase clinical trials Dr. Manji's research career in identifying new genes and their implication in disease has led to numerous key publications and an issued patent. Dr. Manji cares for patients with gastrointestinal malignancies, with a particular focus on pancreatic and liver cancers, and sarcomas. He is the principal investigator of an investigator-initiated multicenter clinical trial that he wrote with Dr. Gary Schwartz in sarcoma and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors and is responsible for clinical trials conducted in liver, bile duct, gallbladder, and pancreas cancers at Columbia University Medical Center.