Research Labs

Physician-scientist Omar Abdel-Wahab studies the functional genomics of hematopoietic malignancies.

Physician-scientist Prasad S. Adusumilli studies tumor immunology and the development of T-cell‒mediated immunotherapy for thoracic malignancies and pleural-based diseases.

Molecular biologist C. David Allis investigates the histone code and its impact on gene regulation and chromosome dynamics.

Heeseon An’s lab develops chemical, biological, and proteomics tools to study protein homeostasis of sub-cellular organelles.

My sarcoma research laboratory is dedicated to the detection and molecular characterization of diagnostic and prognostic markers in soft tissue sarcomas. Our current research is focused on 4 areas: (1) KIT oncogenic signaling in the pathogenesis of GIST and mechanisms of drug resistance to targeted kinase inhibitor therapies; (2) oncogenic signaling in angiosarcoma, with the characterization of KDR (VEGFR2) activating mutations in breast angiosarcoma and MYC/FLT4 gene amplifications in radiation-associated angiosarcoma; (3) fusion gene discovery and fusion transcript characterization in diagnosis and prognosis of soft tissue tumors; and (4) establishing genetically engineered sarcoma models using CRISPR-cas9 methodology for investigating the step-wise pathogenesis of translocation-associated sarcomas and generate faithful preclinical models for in vitro drug testing.

Chemical biologist Daniel Bachovchin designs selective inhibitors to study enzymes and pathways in cancer and immune system signaling.

Physician-scientist Samuel Bakhoum studies the role of chromosomal instability in tumor evolution and metastasis.

Surgeon scientist Vinod Balachandran develops novel immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer.

The Bao laboratory investigates how the genome dictates development using C. elegans as a model.

The Baylies laboratory studies the mechanisms that form and maintain muscle both during normal development and in disease.