Andrew A. Lane, MD, PhD

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Academic Titles

Professor, Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Research Program Affiliation

Co-Leader, Leukemia

Member, Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics

Leadership Roles

Member, Center Scientific Council

Research Abstract

My laboratory studies hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell biology and leukemia. We are interested in genetic and epigenetic alterations that result in aberrant signaling, altered chromatin state, and functionally-relevant changes to the transcriptome in leukemia. Our goal is to characterize the abnormal biology of transformed blood cells to develop novel therapeutic strategies. We study acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), and blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN). We also are interested in sex bias in cancer genomes and how this translates to differences in incidence of malignancy and outcomes during therapy. Finally, we study resistance to leukemia therapies, including in leukemia stem cells and measurable residual disease (MRD), by genomic characterization (DNA and RNA sequencing, including single-cell approaches) of samples from patients before and at the time of progression after specific treatments. We have translated lab discoveries to new combinations that overcome targeted therapy resistance, and we now lead several phase 1-2 trials to test these strategies in patients with blood cancer.