Janice Spence, Ph.D.

I am working in the laboratory of W. Richard Burack, M.D., Ph.D, Director of the Hematopathology Department of Strong Memorial Hospital. Research goals include the development and validation of novel approaches to the diagnosis of hematopoietic malignancies, with special emphasis on lymphomas. Unlike leukemias, in which genetic aberrations generate fusion proteins with mixed regulation and functionality, the characteristic genetic lesion in non-Hodgkins lymphomas involve gene dysregulation through their chromosomal translocation into the IG and TCR regions, which are highly expressed in lymphocytes. Many of these translocations are balanced, which prevents their identification through CGH array methodologies and requires genetic karyotyping and/or FISH for diagnosis, assays which are technically sophisticated. Our approach is two-fold. First, we are developing diagnostic assays based on relatively simple technologies that can be used to identify the common balanced translocations associated with non-Hodgkins lymphomas, suitable for use in a wide-range of diagnostic settings. Second, we are looking to identify a large number of chromosomal markers in lymphomas that will allow for the sub-categorization of these malignancies with regard to clinical outcomes and therapeutic responses. This exploratory approach is based on a novel use of array technologies, using custom oligo arrays to analyze labeled primer extension products which initiate within the well-characterized IG/TCR locations. This use of primer extension products as the analyte allows for the identification of normal gene regions translocated into highly expressed sites, adding the ability to determine spatial proximity to standard CGH arrays.