News
Spring 2024:
Congratulations to Alexandra Grumet for successfully defending her Senior Honors Thesis, earning the highest possible rating of Exceptional, along with 2 very prestigious awards: the Henry Rutgers Scholar Award, and the Duncan and Nancy Macmillan Award for Research Excellence!
Spring 2023:
Congratulations Jay Joshi for passing his PhD Qualifying Exam with flying colors! Lots of exciting work to come!
Spring 2022:
Congratulations to Frank Scallo who will be starting Graduate School in the fall in the Yale Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program!!!
Jan 2022:
Alexander Valvezan receives Young Investigator Award from the Breast Cancer Alliance for research on “Targeting triple-negative breast cancer by exploiting a metabolic vulnerability downstream of mTOR Complex 1”
July 2021:
Alexander Valvezan receives Leukemia Research Foundation Award for research on “Repurposing IMPDH inhibitors for selective targeting of PTEN-deficient T-ALL cells”
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This research tests a new strategy for selectively killing a molecular subtype of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) using drugs that are already being used in humans as safe and well-tolerated immunosuppressants. This strategy exploits a molecular vulnerability that we recently discovered in tumors with abnormal activation of mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1), which is activated to promote cell growth and proliferation in the majority of human cancers. We discovered that tumor cells with active mTORC1 could be selectively killed, without affecting normal cells, in pre-clinical models of a genetic tumor syndrome called Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC), in which tumor growth is driven by high mTORC1 activity. Due to key molecular similarities between cells in TSC tumors and T-ALL, we hypothesize that the same strategy could be effective in killing T-ALL cells in which mTORC1 is activated by specific genetic mutations which are common in leukemia and lymphoma. The use of clinically approved therapeutics means that efficacy in these studies could lead to rapid repurposing of these drugs for leukemia patients.