LEVERAGING HETEROGENEITY IN ACUTE LEUKEMIAS
RESEARCH FOCUS
Using bulk and single cell genomic approaches, our group aims to understand how recurrent genetic events alter the transcriptome and shape the hierarchy and plasticity of tumor and immune cells in acute leukemia. Ultimately, our goal is to perturb specifically these altered states to reveal context-specific vulnerabilities. We also aim to characterize the evolutionary landscape of mutations that predispose to leukemia in the Québec population. This will in turn help to better understand the underlying cooperative events in these subtypes of leukemia and identify new rationales for targeted therapies.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Lavallée VP, Baccelli I, Krosl J, Wilhelm B, Barabé F, Gendron P, Boucher G, Lemieux S, Marinier A, Meloche S, Hébert J and Sauvageau G.
Nature Genetics 2015. 47(9), 1030-1037.
NEWS
May 2022: We are hiring! More details at the bottom of this page.
April 2022: CONGRATULATIONS to Banafsheh for being awarded a Cole foundation fellowship!
February 2022: Severine Landais joins the single cell data analysis platform! More details to follow.
April 2021: CONGRATULATIONS to Simon and Michael who each received an IVADO scholarship to pursue research this summer.
September 2020 Vincent-Philippe Lavallée presents at the 10X Genomics Montreal Single Cell Symposium
August 2020 After receiving a post-doctoral fellowship from the Cole Foundation, Nehme Hachem just received a prestigious IVADO post-doctoral fellowship. Congrats!
June 2020 The Lavallée lab Single-cell platform is now up and running to profile single-cell Omics in cancer and immune tissues! For more information, contact Véronique Lisi or Vincent-Philippe Lavallée
April 2020 The Lavallée lab is awarded a Cole Foundation transition award for the project titled "MAPPING LEUKEMIA PREDISPOSITIONS AND PRELEUKEMIC CLONAL EVOLUTION"
February 2020 The Lavallée lab joins the leucegene multidisciplinary team (leucegene.ca) and the Genome Canada Large-Scale Applied Research Project grant to study cellular heterogeneity in AML patients
PEOPLE
Véronique Lisi
Research Associate - Senior Research Scientist
veronique.lisi.chusj@gmail.com
A native Montrealer, Véronique left the Santa Barbara beaches to come back to work in Montréal. After a position at the MUHC, Véronique joined the lab in May 2020. Trained as a computer scientist and a molecular biologist she enjoys learning about and using the possibilities brought forth by technological advances to uncover new biology. In her free time, you will find her scuba diving the St-Lawrence river and the Great Lakes.
Azer Farah
Bioinformatician
Azer pursued a PhD in molecular biology. He joined the lab in January 2020 as part of his master degree of bioinformatics at the Université de Montréal. in January 2022, he got a position as a bioinformatician in the lab. Azer is interested in the study of genetic heterogeneity profiling of AML using bioinformatics tools for new applications in clinical oncology.
Nehme Hachem
Banafsheh Khakipoor
Postdoctoral fellow
Banafsheh’s background is in computer science and bioinformatics. She has worked on various projects from software engineering to genomics analysis. Now she is delving into AML research. When not at work, she loves exploring new hobbies and hiking locations.
Séverine Landais
Michael Vladovsky
Intern
Medical Student at Université de Montréal Michael is testing the academic research waters. He is currently working on mutation annotation in a large leukemia cohort.
Simon Del Testa
Intern
Medical Student at Université de Montréal with a bachelor in biochemistry, Simon has a keen interest in everything hematology-oncology related. He's a firm believer that his knowledge in bio-informatics will help him be a better clinician at some point. He is currently working on using Cite-Seq data to assign cellular identity in leukaemia primary samples.
Ève Blanchard
blanchardeve5@gmail.com
Intern
Ève, an undergraduate student from Ottawa specializing in biotechnology, is a returning summer intern. Her laboratory experience has prepared her to work on molecular biology projects in the Lavallée laboratory. In her free time she likes to get out of the city and go for nature walks.
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Université de Montréal
Researcher, CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center
Hematologist, CHU Sainte-Justine
Alumni
Anissa Djedid - Bioinformatician
We are HIRING
We are looking for students at all levels (M.Sc, PhD and postdoc) to tackle single cell related research projects. One is more computational oriented, the other, more molecular biology oriented. Please contact us if either of these research project interest you or if you already have a research project in mind.