New Executive Committee Members Appointed to Lymphoma Research Foundation Mantle Cell Lymphoma Consortium 

The Lymphoma Research Foundation – the nation’s largest non-profit organization devoted exclusively to funding innovative lymphoma research and serving the lymphoma community through a comprehensive series of education programs, outreach initiatives, and patient services – is pleased to announce Anita Kumar, MD of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Sílvia Beà, PhD of August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) and Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, to the Executive Committee of its international Mantle Cell Lymphoma Consortium (MCLC). 

The Mantle Cell Lymphoma Consortium Executive Committee helps to guide the MCLC by identifying gaps in research and patient care for this historically understudied patient population. Since its inception, the Mantle Cell Lymphoma Consortium brings together leading international experts to discuss the latest research findings, foster collaboration within the mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) research community, create new directions for research, and ultimately improve diagnosis and treatment for this disease. The MCLC is composed of almost 250 international laboratory and clinical scientists whose research is focused on MCL, a rare subtype of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), which comprises around 5% of all NHLs globally. 

“The Lymphoma Research Foundation’s Mantle Cell Lymphoma Consortium serves as an essential platform for the world’s foremost MCL investigators to share scientific and clinical insights, exchange ideas, and foster new collaborations,” said Meghan Gutierrez, Chief Executive Officer of the Lymphoma Research Foundation. “We are pleased to welcome Drs. Kumar and Beà to the MCLC and look forward to the contributions they will make to advancing the field.”

Dr. Kumar is an Associate Attending in the Department of Medicine, Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. She earned her undergraduate degree in biochemical sciences at Harvard College and received her medical degree from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. Dr. Kumar completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, followed by a fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she joined the faculty in 2014 and currently leads the mantle cell lymphoma research program. Dr. Kumar is also a former Foundation grantee, having received the Foundation’s Lymphoma Scientific Research Mentoring Program (LSRMP) award as well as a Career Development Award (CDA).

Dr. Beà is a molecular geneticist and Senior Specialist in the Hematopathology Section of the Pathology Department at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, where she also serves as an Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona. She earned her PhD in 2003 under the mentorship of Dr. Elias Campo, following early research training that included a research stay at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda. Dr. Beà completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and has led independent research projects at the Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) since 2007, with a longstanding focus on the molecular and genetic characterization of mantle cell lymphoma.

Mantle cell lymphoma is typically an aggressive, rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) that arises from cells originating in the “mantle zone” and is typically diagnosed at a later stage of the disease.