Laura Pasqualucci, MD

Laura Pasqualucci’s research interests focus on the molecular pathogenesis of B cell malignancies, with emphasis on its most common types, diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and follicular lymphoma (FL). The laboratory takes advantage of integrated multi-omics approaches, biochemical assays, and genetically-engineered mouse models to identify and functionally characterize the genetic alterations associated with these cancers, and to understand the role of the affected genes in the physiologic germinal center (GC) reaction, a specialized microenvironment from which most B cell lymphomas arise. A major area of investigation focuses on the methyltransferase KMT2D and the acetyltransferase CREBBP, two histone/chromatin modifiers that we discovered as highly recurrent mutational targets and early events in the evolutionary history of FL/DLBCL. These genes have emerged as central players in many different cancers, and we have documented they act as tumor suppressors genes, the loss of which contributes to lymphomagenesis by remodeling the epigenome of the GC. This information is currently being exploited for the development of novel biomarkers and rational treatment options in these diseases.