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CHAI LAB

BWH Pathology Twitter
A Harvard/Mass General Brigham Clinical pathology/lab diagnostics open house co-organized by our lab member

BWH Clinical and Research News
Treatment for Myelodysplastic Syndrome by Hypomethylating agents (HMA) May Activate an Oncogene

More in The New England Journal of Medicine.

EurekAlert
Treatment for Myelodysplastic Syndrome by Hypomethylating agents (HMA) May Activate an Oncogene

NUS News
Drugs used to treat blood cancer could activate “sleeping” cancer-causing gene

Brigham Research’s Tweet
Colleagues found that hypomethylating agents activated an oncogene in up to 40% of patients with MDS

ACLPS Fall newsletter
ACLPS on Twitter
Our lab’s precision medicine project for MDS won the prestigious research award from ACLPS (Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists). Congrats to Dr Jun Liu and Dr Li Chai!

Nucleate Activate Program
Our team is honored to be selected as a finalist for Nucleate Boston, a trainee-driven bioentrepreneur program led by students to pioneer life science technologies

We hosted our first lab open house for high school students.

Join us for a virtual biomedical career discussion on “what is lab medicine and transfusion medicine” – co-hosted by members of the Chai lab and the Leukemia Lymphoma Society

Our lab member was invited by the Leukemia Lymphoma Society to give a public talk on medical career path related to the blood disease

Precision Medicine To Treat A Bone Marrow Failure and Pre-Leukemic Disorder

Our Project is one of three finalists for the the BRIght Futures Prize in 2022. More information about this Brigham Initiative.

Congratulations to Dr. Ahmed Elzoghby for winning the 2022 BRIght Futures Prize! with his amazing “Nano-Engineering Turns Cancer Friends into Foes” project.

BRIght Futures Prize Interview

Dr. Chai and Dr. Liu interviewed by a 5th grader on their BRIght Futures Prize Project.

Dissecting the cell of origin of aberrant SALL4 expression in myelodysplastic syndrome

We would like to share an exciting new study from the Tatetsu and Chai labs, now on Biorxiv! Using the state-of-art single cell mass cytometry (CyTOF), we analyzed MDS patients’ bone marrow cells and revealed for the first time that the leukemic oncogene SALL4 is aberrantly expressed in the myeloid and stem/progenitor stages of MDS, and we identified a SALL4+/p53+ association especially in patients harboring pathogenic p53 mutations. We recently reported that demethylation and upregulation of SALL4 following hypomethylating agent treatment in MDS patients correlates with poor overall survival. Understanding the bone marrow cellular identity of aberrant SALL4 expression is important for guiding SALL4 diagnostics and targeted therapy in myeloid neoplasms. We also hope our novel finding will serve as a starting point for further investigation of disease pathophysiology.

Believer Pharmaceuticals, a start up company out of the Li Chai and Dan Tenen labs, won first prize at Nucleate Boston.  Dr. Jun Liu and her team have been working with more than twenty other teams as part of a MIT media event competing head to head for the fist place prize. We would like to thank vital members of the Li Chai lab Dr. Gao and Xi Tian for their contributions to the project and valued team members Yasmeen Senussi, Arek V. Melkonian, and lab technician James Nuhfer for their outstanding work. A final thank you to Nucleate Boston for cultivating a nurturing environment and providing guidance as Believer Pharmaceuticals continues to find novel solutions to noble causes.

Oyku’s LinkedIn Post

Purima’s LinkedIn Post

Jun’s LinkedIn Post

We are so proud to congratulate Dr. Yasmeen Senussi for receiving a Poster of Distinction in the Junior Trainee category at the Harvard Medical School Pathology Retreat. Her collaborative work with Dr. Jun Liu and Dr. Chai Li  on the ultrasensitive detection of SALL4 oncoproteins as a therapeutic devolved by Believer Pharmaceuticals.

Yasmeen’s LinkedIn Post

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