Ma Lab

Our lab currently has four active research areas all aimed at furthering our understandings on the genetic underpinnings of childhood cancers. 1) Cancer genetics, etiology, and editing-based therapeutics. Through close collaboration with physician-scientists, we study the somatic and germline alterations across large cohort of patient tumors to define cancer drivers. By investigating the etiology of these drivers, we hope to develop novel vulnerabilities for genome-editing based therapeutics. 2) Mathematical modeling of intra-tumor heterogeneity. The challenge of cancer management is resistance to treatment, which has been shown to stem in intra-tumor heterogeneity. Therefore, our lab is particularly interested in understanding intra-tumor heterogeneity and its relationship to treatment responses. Discoveries from such investigation can lead to novel therapeutic strategies to improve cure rate. 3) Cancer early detection and monitoring. Early-stage cancers are known to have much higher cure rate than late-stage cancers. With extensive knowledges in the genetics of “terminal” stages of childhood cancers, we hope to develop sensitive assays to accurately detect and forecast cancers before overt symptoms to enable early intervention. We use relapsed leukemia as a model system for this direction. 4) Cell line and PDX models. To validate and test the discoveries made from patient specimens, we are currently characterizing the genetics of large collection of cell models, which can also serve as an invaluable resource for the research community. Our work is highly interdisciplinary, leveraging expertise and insights from investigators across the institution including Dr. Mignon Loh (ALL), Dr. Soheil Meshinchi (AML), and Dr. Jeff Klco (AML). We also partner with the Genomics Laboratory in Computational Biology and the Center for Advanced Genome Engineering.