Anschutz’s Gates Institute Receives Grant to Launch Phase 1 Trial of Novel Anti-CD64 CAR T-Cell Therapy

January 14, 2026-A research team at the Gates Institute at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus has been awarded $1 million from Blood Cancer United® (formerly The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) to advance a first-in-human CAR-T cell therapy for patients with treatment-resistant acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The funding will support a Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating anti-CD64 CAR-T cells in patients with venetoclax-refractory myeloid neoplasms—an area of critical unmet medical need.

The trial, titled “A Phase 1 Study of Anti-CD64 CAR T Cells in Patients with Venetoclax-refractory Myeloid Neoplasms,” is fully developed by CU Anschutz investigators and will assess safety, feasibility, and early signs of efficacy. It will be led by Mathew Angelos, MD, PhD, as co–principal investigator alongside Terry Fry, MD, Executive Director of the Gates Institute. The therapy targets CD64, a protein highly expressed on leukemia cells that have developed resistance to standard venetoclax-based regimens.

For patients unable to tolerate intensive chemotherapy—and whose disease no longer responds to venetoclax—treatment options are currently limited to palliative care. By engineering CAR-T cells to selectively recognize CD64, the team aims to induce remission and ultimately pursue curative outcomes in this high-risk population.

The program builds on foundational discoveries from the laboratory of Craig Jordan, PhD, which identified CD64 as a marker enriched in resistant AML cells. Subsequent CAR-T development was led by Eric Kohler, MD, PhD, and Haley Simpson, MD, PhD, leveraging the Gates Institute’s integrated infrastructure, including regulatory support and on-site biomanufacturing near UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital.

Blood Cancer United leadership highlighted the project as a continuation of its long-standing commitment to advancing innovative immunotherapies. With this award, the study becomes the fifth Gates Institute–supported clinical trial at CU Anschutz, underscoring the campus’s growing role in translating next-generation cellular therapies from bench to bedside.