David W. Woessner, PhD

Dr. Woessner seeks to identify genetic changes that cause the most common type of childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). There are multiple subtypes of ALL, each with distinct genetic changes that drive disease development and influence success or failure of treatment. He has sequenced the genomes of over 1000 tumor cells from children with ALL and identified several hundred repeatedly mutated genes, for which the functions are currently unknown. He will use high throughput approaches to test the role of these changes in ALL. A better understanding of which genetic changes significantly impact cancer behavior in ALL will provide new targets for existing therapy and/or avenues for development of new drug treatments for children with ALL.