Cancer Genetics

A group in my lab is developing zebrafish as a model for childhood leukemia development. Our interest in cardiovascular development, coupled with our location in the Huntsman Cancer Institute, resulted in taking a unique developmental genetics perspective to the question of what goes wrong in blood development in the process of leukemia development. We are using transgenics in zebrafish to model specific leukemias, and then will use these models to do large-scale mutants screen in zebrafish to find modifier genes. Our long-term goal for this program is pharmacogenetics; assess the interactions of these genes with pharmacological candidates. In addition, we have an active collaboration with another lab at HCI to characterize zebrafish genes expressed during intestinal development with a focus on genetic pathways implicated in human colon cancer.