Elvin Wagenblast, Ph.D.

Research

The Wagenblast lab studies leukemia, the most common childhood cancer. Acute myeloid leukemia affects both children and adults, yet the genetic mechanisms causing disease in these two populations are distinct. I aim to investigate why specific cancer-driving mutations occur in pediatric leukemia prior to birth compared with different mutations seen in adult leukemia by utilizing patient samples, CRISPR technologies, and humanized mouse models. I will introduce various cancer mutations in different combinations into human blood stem cells to build an informational map detailing alterations in leukemia and how the developmental state in which they occur is susceptible or resistant to cancer formation. The biological landscape derived from these studies will offer significant insight into expanding our current understanding of susceptibility to developing cancer in childhood and establishing new therapeutic avenues for treating pediatric leukemia.