• Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia 

Dr. Sinisa Dovat became Director of Translational Research in the Pediatric Experimental Therapeutics Program in 2010. The long-term goal of Dr. Dovat’s work is to understand how the loss of normal gene regulation leads to cancer in humans.

The most important difference between cancer cells compared to normal cells is in the way they divide and multiply.  Cancer cells are immortal; they divide rapidly and they divide indefinitely.

The focus of Dr. Dovat’s internationally-recognized laboratory is to discover how abnormities in certain genes result in cancer, and is focused on several research projects.  One of the projects he studies involves a gene called Ikaros, which is important in leukemia because it controls a number of other genes.  When it is absent in patients’ cells, high-risk childhood leukemia can develop, which has a poor outcome.