Hematologic Malignancies

Program Leader: Dr. Bridget Wilson

The Hematologic Malignancies Research Program at the University of New Mexico Cancer Center was established in 2001 by integrating an outstanding team of transdisciplinary basic, translational and clinical scientists who use highly sophisticated genomic, computational, imaging and modeling approaches in human leukemia specimens and model systems. Program science is focused on how novel underlying genetic mutations in leukemia affect gene expression, signaling and adhesion pathways to promote cancers of the blood.

The Program is a highly interactive, transdicisplinary program with 25 program members from four departments in the UNM School of Medicine (Medicine, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Pathology and Pediatrics) two departments on the UNM Main Campus (Mathematics and Physics and Astronomy), and Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. Program members’ research spans from the most basic interdisciplinary research, to translational investigations using human tissues and animal model systems, to the design of cancer clinical trials.

The major scientific goals of the Program include:

1. To use comprehensive genomic technologies and model systems to study the transcriptional regulation of hematopoiesis and the gene expression patterns of normal and leukemic cells in order to discover novel underlying genetic lesions in leukemia that may serve as new therapeutic targets;
2. To functionally characterize, image, and model signaling and adhesion pathways in normal and leukemic cells in order to understand how unique genetic abnormalities perturb these pathways to promote leukemogenesis and to identify targets for therapeutic intervention;
3. To translate program science and discoveries to novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies and clinical trials at the UNM Cancer Center and within the NCI Cooperative Groups.

Program members have used sophisticated genomic and computational technologies to develop gene expression classifiers for outcome prediction in leukemia and discover novel therapeutic targets in this disease that are being translated to clinical trials. The Program takes advantage of advanced live cell imaging and spatiotemporal modeling technologies to support high profile studies of relevant receptors and signaling pathways.

Since 2005, the program’s funding and intra- and inter-programmatic interactions have significantly increased. Program members hold three interdisciplinary, multi-investigator, programmatic grants, including one of 10 NIH National Centers for Systems Biology, a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Specialized Center for Research in Leukemia, and an NCI Strategic Partnerships Grant. Program members also launched the first NCI TARGET project to identify new therapeutic targets in high-risk pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Program members and their collaborators at St. Jude Children’s Hospital and in the Children’s Oncology Group have recently been notified that they will receive two NCI ARRA grants to continue to translate their work to leukemia clinical trials.

As of September 2009, program members held more than $9.967 million in total annual direct funding, which is a 44% increase from 2005. Of that, more than $9.131 million was peer-reviewed. Annual direct NCI funding to the program has increased 55% to more than $2.448 million. In 2008, program members published a total of 64 cancer-relevant publications, of which 41 were intra-programmatic and 19% were inter-programmatic.

Researchers in the Hematologic Malignancies Research Program