Ellis is a computational geneticist with a long-term goal of bridging genomics, bioethics and health policy to promote equitable precision medicine for minority populations.

All that’s in addition to her day jobs as a pharmacist and diabetes educator just outside of Jackson, Mississippi.

Senior author Mary Philip, MD, PhD, associate director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation, talks about her Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer study. The findings support further vaccine investigation to make long-term, progression-free survival a reality for more cancer patients.

The consortium is coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer with the aim of sharing data from ongoing lung cancer case-control and cohort studies.

The therapy, P-BCMA-ALL01, demonstrated a 91% overall response rate for the 23 patients participating in the phase 1 trial.

“The Palliative Care team is a special group of people, and I wouldn’t have wanted to share probably the most devastating week of my life with any other group,” said Jeff. “I’ve been a woodworker for more than 40 years, and I decided I wanted to do something to let them know just how wonderful they are.”

Donors are welcomed into the Legacy Circle when they make a lasting gift to the Medical Center through their will, retirement plan, life insurance policy or trust.