1. What is your lab’s long-term/big-picture research goal?
We want to identify the genes expressed by leukemia stem cells (LSC) of our zebrafish acute lymphoblastic leukemia models, and then test whether these same genes define LSC in human acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). We're also interested in zebrafish non-malignant lymphopoiesis, particularly thymic B cells.
2. What is your training/scientific background?
Graduate school training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and OMRF in Don Capra's lab (1993-1998), studying germinal center B cells. Post-Doctoral research in Brad Cairns' lab (2003-2005) at the University of Utah & Huntsman Cancer Institute, studying RNA interference and chromatin biology. T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia research using zebrafish models in Nikolaus Trede's lab (2006-2011) at the University of Utah & Huntsman Cancer Institute as a junior faculty member. Medical School at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (1991-1993) & OU (1998-2000), pediatric residency (2000-2002) and pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship (2002-2005) at the University of Utah & Primary Children's Medical Center.
3. What is the goal of your OCASCR project?
The goal of our 2019 OCASCR project was to determine whether treating ALL with glucocorticoids or radiation enriched the percentage of LSC in these cancers. They did. Our 2022 OCASCR proposal will test whether bi-phenotypic cells (cells expressing genes of both the B- and T-lineages) are enriched for LSC. We will also functionally test the properties of normal and malignant bi-phenotypic cells.
4. What’s your most critical piece of research equipment in your lab? Why?
Two, really: Our fluorescent microscope, which allows us to identify zebrafish with ALL and track their B & T cells (which we engineered to be fluorescent) and also our CytoFLEX flow cytometer, which allows us to quantify these cells and to identify new cell populations.
5. What’s your favorite scientific meeting to attend? Why?
The annual "Zebrafish Disease Models" Conference. I attended the 2nd of these ('ZMD2') back in 2009, and have attended most of these yearly conferences since, with ZDM14 set to occur Oct. 11-14, 2021. It is the premier international conference to see cutting-edge science by investigators using zebrafish to model cancer and other diseases, which is exactly what we do.
