Anastasios Dimou, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
A Breath of Hope is pleased to announce our 2023 Peg’s Fight For Life Research Award to Anastasios Dimou, M.D. of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, for his project entitled BiTE to target EGFR peptide: HLA class I complexes in EGFR mutant lung cancers.
Anastasios Dimou, M.D:
Dr. Dimou attended medical school at the University of Athens Medical School. There, he earned his M.D. degree and developed his interest in lung cancer research.
In 2011, Dr. Dimou completed his post-doctoral fellowship at the Yale University School of Medicine. A few years later, in 2014, Dr Dimou completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Albert Einstein Medical Center. In 2017, he completed his Hematology/Oncology Fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina. Lastly, in 2019, Dr. Dimou completed an advanced fellowship in Investigational Cancer Therapeutic Thoracic Oncology at the University of Colorado.
In 2017, Dr. Dimou became Medical Oncology and Hematology certified by the Board of Internal Medicine. In 2018, he received the Travel Award for Advanced Course in Basic and Clinical Immunology from the Federation of Clinical Immunology Society. That same year, Dr. Dimou won the AACR-Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Young Investigator Award for Translational Cancer Research. His winning project established the foundations of the work that is currently being funded by A Breath of Hope Lung Foundation.
Dr. Dimou is thrilled to win the A Breath of Hope 2023 Peg’s Fight for Life Award for his project BiTE to target EGFR peptide: HLA class I complexes in EGFR mutant lung cancers. He is excited to continue his work on strategies to overcome resistance to immunotherapy in EGFR and other mutation-driven non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC).
The EGFR gene provides instructions for making a receptor protein called the epidermal growth factor receptor. EGFR mutant lung cancer is caused by a mutation in the EGFR gene that causes cells to grow at abnormal rates and form tumors. Biomarker testing can identify an EGFR mutation, and advances in lung cancer treatment have made it possible to target these proteins to stop the growth of cancer cells.
A Breath of Hope expresses its gratitude to Dr. Dimou and his lab at the Mayo Clinic for their extraordinary commitment and contributions to the lung cancer field. Further, A Breath of Hope thanks the loyal community of donors who make A Breath of Hope’s work and research possible.
About the Project:
The immune system is able to recognize EGFR mutations as “non-self” in certain patients with EGFR mutant lung cancer. However, immunotherapy in the form of immune checkpoint inhibitors has not been successful in this patient population. In this project, Dr. Dimou will screen a lung cancer patient-derived library of antibody sequences to develop a compound that engages the immune system, specifically toward EGFR mutations. The approach will leverage unique aspects of the immunobiology in mutant EGFR lung cancer to deliver a personalized immunotherapeutic for further preclinical and clinical development.
Named Research Awards
This award was named in honor of Peg Fisher-Jullie. Read her story here. ABOH offers major donors the chance to “name” an ABOH national research award. “Named Research Awards” enable donors to fund part or all of a research award in their name or in memory or honor of a loved one. To learn more, email Executive Director, Nancy Torrison at .
