Hematopoietic Development and Malignancy

Program Leaders: Daniel Link, MD, PhD, and Peter Westervelt, MD, PhD 

The Hematopoietic Development and Malignancy Program (HDMP) includes 29 Washington University faculty members from four departments. The long-term goals of the HDMP are to elucidate basic mechanisms regulating normal and malignant hematopoiesis and use this information to develop strategies for the prevention, diagnosis, prognostic stratification and treatment of hematopoietic malignancies. We have identified areas of institutional strength and developed the following specific translational goals:

• To leverage local expertise in cancer genomics to identify novel recurrent mutations in hematopoietic malignancies and develop their translational potential
• To expand translational research in multiple myeloma and lymphoma
• To take advantage of local expertise in fundamental hematopoiesis research to expand translational research in bone marrow failure syndromes
• To utilize local expertise in fundamental immunology and stem-cell biology research to expand translational research in stem-cell transplantation

Working groups in leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, bone marrow failure and transplantation biology have been established to develop, review, prioritize and conduct translational research. The HDMP will foster collaborative translational research and provide training of junior investigators through research seminars, journal clubs, work-in-progress meetings and the annual HDMP retreat.

PROGRAM MEMBERS