Research Focus

My laboratory has been studying the adaptive survival of cancer cells undergoing energy/metabolic stress. We focus on tumor metabolism and exploiting the metabolic vulnerabilities of ALL lymphoblasts for therapeutic gain in relapsed/refractory childhood and adolescent & young adults with this disease and other acute leukemias. Mechanistically my laboratory has focused on the role of AMPK as a regulator of survival adaptation to energy/metabolic stress. We have identified a non-canonical function for AMPK by which epigenetically regulates gene expression to promote cancer cell survival under intrinsic and extrinsic conditions of energy and metabolic stress. Ultimately, we aim to identify novel targeting strategies for refractory/relapse leukemia and other hematological malignancies