Nine New Members Join DF/HCC

Nine individuals have recently joined DF/HCC. See below to learn more about these scientists and their research interests.

	Benjamin Ebert, MD, PhD (BWH) Leukemia Program Research focus: the biology and treatment of cancer using hematopoiesis as a model system. A major focus of the laboratory is the myelodsyplastic syndrome (MDS), a pre-malignant disorder of hematopoietic stem cells that progresses to acute leukemia. Recent findings include identification of a gene that plays a central role in the pathophysiology of the 5q- syndrome (a subtype of MDS), and a molecular link between the 5q- syndrome and congenital bone marrow failure syndromes such as Diamond Blackfan Anemia.
	Caprice Greenberg, MD, MPH (BWH) Breast Cancer Program; Outcomes Research Program Research focus: quality of care in surgery and surgical oncology, particularly patient safety, disparities, healthcare utilization, and quality measurement. Recent studies include exploring the impact of human factors on performance and safety in the operating room. Interests include developing methods for measuring quality and understanding variations in utilization and quality at both the patient and institution level.
	Elizabeth Henske, MD (BWH) Cancer Genetics Program Research focus: pathogenesis of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) with a particular interest in the renal manifestations (cysts, angiomyolipomas, and carcinomas) and in the pulmonary manifestation, lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM).
	Eugene Houseman, ScD (HSPH) Biostatistics Program Research focus: computationally efficient methods for epigenomics research including latent variable methods, model-based clustering, and high-dimensional data analysis. Interests include molecular epidemiology, biomarker discovery, environmental exposure assessment, and the analysis of associations between DNA methylation and copy number variation.
	Panagiotis Konstantinopoulos, MD, PhD (BIDMC) Gynecologic Cancer Program Research focus: epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Particular research includes using gene expression profiling to identify novel genes involved in malignant transformation and drug resistance, predict the outcome of advanced disease as well as response to novel therapies, and molecularly characterize a variety of EOC histologic subtypes. This involves a combination of data analysis as well as in vitro work with a special focus on elucidating platinum resistance as well as improving EOC prognostication.
	Annarosa Leri, MD (BWH) Invasion, Metastasis, and Angiogenesis Program Research focus: to demonstrate that the heart is a self-renewing organ and, therefore, cardiac aging is determined by the progressive depletion of functionally competent cardiac stem cells. Studies investigate the mechanisms that control proliferation, senescence, and death of undifferentiated cells, particularly the regulation of telomerase-telomere axis and p53 pathway.
	Hiroaki Wakimoto, MD, PhD (MGH) Neuro-Oncology Program Research focus: developing effective treatment strategies for glioblastoma (GBM). Specific interests include studying oncolytic herpes simplex virus vectors (oHSV) as anti-cancer agents with a gene delivery capacity, cancer stem cells believed to be initiating and driving the GBM growth, glioma invasion (anti-invasiveness), and the differentiation induction of GBM stem cells.
	Helen Wang, MD, PhD (BIDMC) Cancer Epidemiology Program; Gastrointestinal Malignancies Program Research focus: epidemiology of chronic diseases including publication of the first systemic epidemiology studies on lymphomatoid papulosis, establishing the close relationship and quantitating the relative risk between lymphomatoid papulosis and Hodgkin’s disease and other lymphomas; gastrointestinal pathology focusing on microscopic colitis and Barrett’s-associated esophageal adenocarcinoma; and cytopathology concentrating on thyroid FNA, breast FNA, gastrointestinal cytopathology and the evaluation of cost-effectiveness of different preparation and processing methods in cytology.
	Wei Zhang, PhD (UMB) Translational Pharmacology and Early Therapeutic Trials Program Research focus: designing and synthesizing drug-like molecules and natural product analogs for screening against cancer-related targets. Interests include collaboration on small-scale parallel synthesis of compound libraries and scale-up synthesis for lead generation, lead optimization, and QSAR studies.

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