Education
BS- Bioengineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
PhD- Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Honors and Awards
- 2015-2017 National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Program, Extramural Award
- 2014-2016 Academic Programs Special Fellowship, St. Jude
- 2011-2013 American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellow, Founder’s Affiliate
Research Interests
I am a trained biomedical engineer with research experience in the molecular mechanisms of sickle cell disease and pediatric T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. My primary research interest is to understand how inherited genetic variation contributes to pediatric tumorigenesis. Towards this end, my research interests focus on:
- Identifying novel genetic causes of childhood cancer
- Determining the influence of germline genomics on pediatric cancer susceptibility (i.e. reduced penetrance and variable expressivity)
- Optimizing germline variant interpretation in an effort to better classify variants and reduce the number of variants of uncertain significance (VUS) reported
Selected Publications
Bloom, M., Maciaszek, JL., Clark, ME., Pui, CH., Nichols, KE., Recent Advances in Genetic Predisposition to Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Expert Review of Hematology, Epub ahead of print, doi.org/10.1080/17474086.2020.1685866, 2019. Role: Co-First Author.
Maciaszek, JL., Oak, N., Chen, W., Hamilton, KV., McGee, RB., Nuccio, R., Mostafavi, R., Hines-Dowell, S., Harrison, L., Taylor, L., Gerhardt, EL., Ouma, A., Edmonson, MN., Patel, A., Nakitandwe, J., Pappo, AS., Azzato, EM., Shurtleff, SA., Ellison, DW., Downing, JR., Hudson, MM., Robison, LL., Santana, V., Newman, S., Zhang, J., Wang, Z., Wu, G., Nichols, KE., Kesserwan, CA., Enrichment of germline RECQL4 loss-of-function variants in pediatric cancer. Cold Spring Harbor Molecular Case Studies, 5, a004218, 2019.
Quinn, EA., Maciaszek, JL., Pinto, EM., Phillips, AH., Berdy, D., Khandwala, M., Upadhyaya, SA., Zambetti, GP., Kriwacki, RW., Ellison, DW., Nichols, KE., Kesserwan, C., From uncertainty to pathogenicity: Clinical and functional interrogation of a rare TP53 in-frame deletion. Cold Spring Harbor Molecular Case Studies, 5: a003921, 2019.
Liu Y, Easton J, Shao Y, Maciaszek J, Wang Z, Wilkinson MR, McCastlain K, Edmonson M, Pounds SB, Shi L, Zhou X, Ma X, Sioson E, Li Y, Rusch M, Gupta P, Pei D, Cheng C, Smith MA, Auvil JG, Gerhard DS, Relling MV, Winick NJ, Carroll AJ, Heerema NA, Raetz E, Devidas M, Willman CL, Harvey RC, Carroll WL, Dunsmore KP, Winter SS, Wood BL, Sorrentino BP, Downing JR, Loh ML, Hunger SP, Zhang J, Mullighan CG. The Genomic Landscape of T-Lineage Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Nature Genetics 49:1211-1218, 2017.
Wandersee NJ, Maciaszek JL, Giger KM, Hanson MS, Zheng S, Guo Y, Mickelson B, Hillery CA, Lykotrafitis G, Low PS, Hogg N. Dietary supplementation with docosohexanoic acid (DHA) increases red blood cell membrane flexibility in mice with sickle cell disease. Blood Cells, Molecules, and Diseases 54:183-188, 2015.
Maciaszek JL, Partola K, Zhang J, Andemariam B, Lykotrafitis G. Single-cell force spectroscopy as a technique to quantify human red blood cell adhesion to subendothelial laminin. Journal of Biomechanics 47:3855-3861, 2014.
Maciaszek, JL, Andemariam, B, Lykotrafitis, G, AKAP-dependent modulation of BCAM/Lu adhesion on normal and sickle cell disease RBCs revealed by force nanoscopy. Biophysical J 106:1258-1267, 2014.
Maciaszek JL, Soh H, Walikonis RS, Tzingounis AV, Lykotrafitis G. Topography of Native SK Channels Revealed by Force Nanoscopy in Living Neurons. The Journal of Neuroscience 32:11435-11440, 2012. Recommended by Faculty of 1000.
Maciaszek JL, Lykotrafitis G. Sickle cell trait human erythrocytes are significantly stiffer than normal, Journal of Biomechanics 44:657-661, 2011.
Last update: November 2019