Steven Kornblau, MD

• Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Dr. Steven Kornblau received his Hematology/Oncology fellowship training at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center and joined the faculty in 1991. He is currently a full professor with tenure. Dr. Kornblau's research activities initially focused on protein expression in leukemia with the goal of identifying proteins who’s function are key to the survival of leukemic cells. Initially he focused on individual proteins and over the years have published many articles on RB, waf1, BCL2, BAX, PKCα, PCNA. ERK, AKT, FOXO3a. His focus has evolved from analyzing individual proteins to a more systems biology approach capable of simultaneously looking at hundreds of proteins, including phosphorylation states, with the goal of defining patterns of protein activation in AML. Dr. Kornblau's laboratory developed the techniques necessary to use reverse phase protein array technology for the study of leukemia and he is recognized as the leader in that field. He and his lab personnel have extended this to also look at external effects by studying cytokine profiling and integrating that with the protein signatures. Recently they demonstrated the ability to perform proteomic profiling in the very rare populations of AML stem cells. Key to the success of my research has been the availability of patient derived material. When he started doing his research he discovered that no one at MDACC was systematically banking patient derived material. In response to this void Dr. Kornblau began banking surplus material from the samples that he collected for his research and soon had a sizable bank. Over time Dr. Kornblau assumed the banking responsibilities for 3 P01 grants (AML, MDS, CML) and 2 SPORE grants (Leukemia and Myeloma) and now he is the director of the MDACC Leukemia Sample Bank. MDACC repository is perhaps the largest leukemia bank in the world and has been called a “national treasure” in a P01 grant review. The LSB is internationally recognized for it’s size, the breadth of our collection and the completeness of our clinical annotation. As a vice-chair on the IRB I recognized the need for banking protocols that were able to adequately consent patients today while also covering the changing research needs of the future. In response Dr. Kornblau pioneered a double consenting process, one for sample collection the other for research use, that has now become standard at MDACC. In addition to adult AML we now also bank pediatric samples and the myeloma bank is also part of our operations. The combination of his experience with patient sample based proteomics and access to this wealth of patient material makes him ideally suited to the successful execution of this proposed analysis of how hypoxia and stromal contact affect AML cell biology and proteomics.