Andrew Lane is a physician-scientist whose goal is to define novel targets in hematologic malignancies that lead to new therapies. He obtained his MD and PhD degrees from Washington University in 2006. His PhD thesis research with Dr. Timothy Ley studied the pathophysiology of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). He created new mouse models to understand why the PML-RARa oncogene specifically transforms early myeloid progenitors but no other cell types. He then completed his internal medicine training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School, and fellowships in hematology and medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His postdoctoral research interrogated patient leukemia genetics and animal models to ask why Down syndrome is associated with increased risk of B-ALL. Using an shRNA screen in primary B cell progenitors, he identified the epigenetic regulator and nucleosome-binding protein HMGN1, encoded on chromosome 21q22, as a novel lymphoid leukemia oncogene. Now an assistant professor at Dana-Farber and Harvard Medical School leading his own laboratory group, he continues to work on AML and ALL to elucidate new therapeutic targets. He now also studies blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), a rare leukemia/lymphoma of dendritic cells, with projects on BPDCN genetics, dendritic cell transformation mechanisms, and testing novel therapies in animal models and in clinical trials, including BCL-2 inhibition, CAR-T cells, and cell surface receptor-targeted immunotoxins. Dr. Lane is director of a new BPDCN Center at Dana-Farber, a clinical and translational research group that aims to accelerate basic biological understanding and promote rapid clinical evaluation of novel therapeutics in BPDCN.
