Alex Kentsis, MD, PhD

Dr. Kentsis [Richard Lumsden Foundation Clinical Investigator] focuses on the discovery and development of novel therapeutic strategies for patients with refractory cancers, with immediate emphasis on therapy-resistant acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Recent advances in genomic technology revealed a daunting complexity of genetic lesions in some cancers, and surprising dearth of gene mutations amenable to therapy in others. As a physician caring for children with hematologic and solid tumors, his goal is to accelerate advances in AML therapy, by developing functional genomic and proteomic technologies to determine the principal molecular lesions driving AML cells. Using preclinical models, he is defining the mechanisms by which aberrant signaling controls gene expression and therapy resistance in AML and testing therapeutic agents to block AML cell growth and survival.