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

THE TRANSCRIPTOMIC LANDSCAPE AND DIRECTED CHEMICAL INTERROGATION OF MLL-REARRANGED ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIAS.

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

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

514-345-4931 x6461

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.

Alexis Nolin-Lapalme

Intern

alexis.nolin-lapalme@umontreal.ca

Medical Student at l’Université de Montreal and has a great interest in computational approaches to solve clinical problems. He also works at his company Phyla as well as teach AI and data science approaches at the CHUM AI school for health and on his website trouvia.io. Loves entrepreneurship, innovation and coffee.

Azer Farah

Master Student

A dedicated Tunisian based in Montreal, Azer pursued a PhD in molecular biology. As part of his master of bioinformatics at the Université de Montréal, he joined the lab in January 2020. Currently, he is interested in the study of mechanisms regulating the gene activity of cancers by transcriptomic profiling using bioinformatics tools for new applications in clinical oncology.

Michael Vladovsky

Intern

Medical Student at l’Université de Montreal Michael is testing the academic research waters. He is currently working on mutation annotation in a large leukemia cohort.

Nehme Hachem

Postdoctoral fellow

Nehme obtained his PhD in 2017 from Universite de Montreal and is now completing a research fellowship. Nehme brings an expertise in integrative pharmaco-genomics and computational systems biology, applied to translational cancer research. His current research, supported by a Cole Foundation Fellowship revolves around the understanding of the "omic" landscape of acute myeloid leukemia and to translate research findings to clinical practice.

Looking for talent

We are looking for a talented and motivated PhD candidate in molecular biology (or the like) to work in a multi-disciplinary environment on the mechanisms and targetability of CCND1 deregulation in AML. If you fit this description Contact us