Washington University in St. Louis (WU)
Key interests include clonal hematopoiesis (CH), hematopoietic drivers of disease, myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), and hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell biology as it pertains to disease pathogenesis. I am particularly interested in the mechanisms by which independent leukemic driver clones emerge and compete with pre-existing MPN driver clones, and how this clonal architecture influences disease trajectory, treatment response, and the timing of leukemic transformation. Primary objectives of my research include quantifying clonal expansion rates in patients with chronic MPN and those who undergo MPN-to-sAML transformation, defining which driver mutations outcompete others within this understudied cohort, and identifying context-specific vulnerabilities that can be exploited therapeutically. My work utilizes single-cell genomic approaches, patient-derived xenograft and humanized mouse models, and longitudinal sequencing to reconstruct clonal hierarchies and to model how diverse mutant clones arising from distinct MPN subtypes interact within an architecturally and clinically relevant bone marrow niche.