Precision Medicine for Pediatric Acute Leukemia
Yana Pikman is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Hematologic Neoplasms Program at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. She is also the director of the Leukemia Precision-based Therapy (LEAP) Consortium, an initiative dedicated to the development of precision medicine in pediatric hematologic diseases, and directs a translational hematology laboratory at the Department of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Her research activity is primarily focused on the implementation of precision medicine in pediatric hematology-oncology. In particular, his work aims to bridge the gap between basic research and clinical practice through the integration of clinical genomics, characterization and functional validation of novel genomic alterations, development of biomarkers for early phase clinical trials, and design of combination therapeutic strategies for pediatric patients with acute leukemia.
Through research protocols fostered by the LEAP Consortium, Professor Pikman has contributed to the generation of new evidence in the field of pediatric leukemia genomics and the development of potential therapeutic interventions currently being studied in preclinical models. In addition, through integrated genomic approaches, she has identified the crucial role of enzymes involved in the mitochondrial metabolism of folate to monocarbon units and in the methionine cycle, key processes in the regulation of the cellular methylation profile.
Currently, one of her group's main research strands is devoted to the study of the Chemistry and genetic role of these metabolic pathways in the pathogenesis of acute myeloid leukemias and acute lymphoblastic leukemias.
