Member Biography

Blood and immune disorders such as hematologic malignancies and immune deficiency syndromes affect millions of people worldwide. Blood cancers alone account for over 700,000 deaths a year, making up more than 7% of cancer related mortality. These disorders arise from mutations, deficiencies, or dysregulation of the hematopoietic system, often in the hematopoietic stem (HSC) and progenitor cell (HPC) compartment. Correction of this dysregulation through targeted manipulation of molecular programs or via cellular therapies are potential avenues of treatment for hematologic diseases. Thus, it is critical to understand the regulation of HSC/HPC function, how dysregulation causes disease, and how these mechanisms can be targeted for clinical utility. However, a comprehensive understanding of factors that regulate healthy and diseased HSC/HPC function is still being developed. My research focuses on intrinsic and extrinsic factors that affect hematopoietic cell functional competency and how these processes can be targeted for improved treatment of hematologic disease. My group has a specific interest in improving the potency of hematopoietic cells for use in hematopoietic cell therapies, including transplantation, gene editing, and CAR-T/NK cell therapies. Additionally, we examine novel axes of regulation that are critical for both healthy and malignant cell growth and health, with a particular focus on the role of the regulatory serine protease Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) and local oxygen tensions in leukemic cell growth and hematopoietic cell functional competency. We study diseased hematopoietic cells using human umbilical cord blood or mouse bone marrow cells transformed to acute myeloid leukemia-like cells and will also utilize patient samples, established cells lines, and spontaneous murine leukemias. To study healthy hematopoietic cell function, we utilize models of human cord blood transplantation. This is an effective model because 1) cord blood transplantation yields variable outcomes in the clinic, allowing for direct modeling of gene programs that affect hematopoietic cell function using human outcomes; 2) cord blood is a promising source for off-the-shelf hematopoietic cell therapies; and 3) improving understanding of cord blood transplantation has immediate translational implications for patients that are underrepresented in bone marrow and peripheral blood registries. Our work will have a positive impact by providing new insights into regulatory mechanisms affecting healthy and transformed hematopoietic cell function. From a translational standpoint, understanding molecular programs that affect hematopoietic potency will provide mechanistic insight into gene programs that can be targeted to improve HSC/HPC function in cellular therapies, to improve recovery following transplantation or hematopoietic insult, and more effectively target malignant cells, all of which have the potential to improve patient outcomes.

Post-doctoral Fellowship - Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 2024

Ph.D. - University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 2019