Research we fund

The goal of our program aims to understanding the general roles of DNA methylation machineries in epigenetic regulation and cancerous transformation seen in hematological cancers. Routinely, we take a set of integrated biochemical, genomics, oncology, and medicinal chemistry approaches to tackle the broad and critical questions in this field. Our findings shall not only promote current understanding of how hematological malignancies occur but also help develop novel therapeutic approaches.

Project Term: July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2023

Coming soon.

Project Term: April 1, 2021 - March 21, 2026

The processes that control the progression of myeloproliferative neoplasms to leukemic transformation remain largely unknown. We have developed genetic mouse models that recapitulate leukemia progression in humans. We aim to discover new regulators and pathways controlling the propagation of leukemia stem cells as targetable vulnerabilities. Our study promises to provide critical insights into developing new and generalizable therapies to selectively eliminate leukemia stem cells.

Project Term: July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2024

This project focuses on designing new immunotherapy approaches for the treatment of patients with follicular lymphoma. It is based on a clincal trial that tests combinations of antibodies, with the goal of making the patients’ own immune systems more effective at attacking their lymphoma. Through analysis of tumor and blood samples from the patients on the trial, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of the biology of follicular lymphoma and its vulnerability to immune attack, which will help to design the next generation of trials. The trial and sample collection are currently ongoing.

Project Term: July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2023

We are testing whether the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab can improve outcomes of patients. In MDS, we showed that entinostat reduces the number and activity of immune suppressive cells, thereby making the cancer susceptible to the killing effect of pembrolizumab. We are now testing this combination in a clinical trial. In CML, many patients cannot completely clear the disease despite tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy due to inability of their immune system to eradicate all CML cells. We therefore designed a clinical trial to augment the TKI impact on CML cells by adding pembrolizumab.

Project Term: July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2023

My group studies variation in clinical outcomes of patients with aggressive lymphomas and tries to capture the underlying basis for this variation. We then integrate insights from our studies into molecular prediction tools that inform the probable outcomes of individual patients when treated with therapeutic regimens that are currently available. We hope to build precise risk models that have high predictive value for clinical outcomes of patients with lymphoma. Our goal is to use these models to inform therapeutic trials of novel strategies to improve the outcomes of blood cancer patients.

Project Term: July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2024