Katia Basso studies the process of differentiation of germinal center B cells and the mechanisms of malignant transformation leading to lymphomagenesis. Her interest is in dissecting the transcriptional networks that drive normal B cell differentiation and are hijacked in lymphomas. She integrates omics technologies, molecular and cellular biology, and in-vivo modeling to characterize normal B cells and their malignant counterparts. Her research informs on lymphoma features and dependences that impact diagnostics and therapeutics.

Katia Basso

Laura Pasqualucci’s research interests focus on the molecular pathogenesis of B cell malignancies, with emphasis on its most common types, diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and follicular lymphoma (FL). The laboratory takes advantage of integrated multi-omics approaches, biochemical assays, and genetically-engineered mouse models to identify and functionally characterize the genetic alterations associated with these cancers, and to understand the role of the affected genes in the physiologic germinal center (GC) reaction, a specialized microenvironment from which most B cell lymphomas arise.



A major area of investigation focuses on the methyltransferase KMT2D and the acetyltransferase CREBBP, two histone/chromatin modifiers that we discovered as highly recurrent mutational targets and early events in the evolutionary history of FL/DLBCL. These genes have emerged as central players in many different cancers, and we have documented they act as tumor suppressors genes, the loss of which contributes to lymphomagenesis by remodeling the epigenome of the GC. This information is currently being exploited for the development of novel biomarkers and rational treatment options in these diseases.

Laura Pasqualucci

The research program in the Dalla-Favera laboratory is aimed at the identification of the molecular pathogenesis of human B cell malignancies. Functional and structural genomic approaches are used toward the identification of the genetic lesions leading to the transformation of B lymphocytes. The genomic landscape of the tumors is then recapitulated in genetically modified mice in order to construct models for pre-clinical testing of science-based new therapeutic modalities.

Faculty