Researcher - Lai Chan, PhD
Facility - Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic
Location - Cleveland, OH
Amount - $50,000.00

Biography: Dr. Lai Chan earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles. She then pursued her postdoctoral training under the guidance of Dr. Markus Müschen at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2022, Dr. Chan was recruited to the Lerner Research Institute of Cleveland Clinic, where she is an Assistant Staff in the Department of Cancer Biology, leading a research program focused on leukemia and lymphoma. She also holds an appointment as an Assistant Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University and is a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, participating in the Immune Oncology Research Program.

Lay Description: B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) is one of the most common childhood cancers, marked by the rapid growth of immature white blood cells in the bone marrow. This cancer arises when genetic mutations disrupt key signaling pathways – cellular communication networks that regulate essential processes including cell growth and survival. When these pathways malfunction, they can trigger uncontrolled cell growth, leading to cancer. Traditional treatments target the primary cancer-causing pathways. However, many patients eventually develop resistance to these drugs, causing the leukemia to return. Unfortunately, more than half of these patients do not survive, underscoring the urgent need for better therapies to improve outcomes for B-ALL patients.

Signaling pathways can either work together or oppose each other, influencing the survival and growth of leukemia cells. Current approaches to overcoming drug resistance often involve combining drugs that block multiple pathways. Our research proposes a novel strategy: instead of inhibiting the primary cancer-causing pathway, we aim to activate specific inhibitory pathways that counteract it. By doing so, we hope to stop the progression of the disease. We will test a combination of two drugs – one that directly inhibits the main cancer-causing pathway and another that activates an opposing inhibitory pathway. Using laboratory models of B-ALL, we will assess whether this approach improves treatment responses. The ultimate goal of our research is to develop innovative therapies that can overcome drug resistance, enhancing the effectiveness of treatments for B-ALL and improving survival rates for leukemia patients.