Leukemia Translational Science Center

The integrated Leukemia Translational Science Center (LTSC) generates, coordinates, and leads translational studies in leukemia within the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) and across the National Cancer Institute’s National Clinical Trials Network. Through all of its activities (see below), the LTSC expects to transform the standard practice of leukemia care with the development and implementation of personalized diagnostic methods, biomarkers, and therapies.

Leadership

Elisabeth M. Paietta, PhD (Retired)

Ross L. Levine, MD (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)

Ari M. Melnick, MD (Weill Cornell Medical College)

A Central Hub

The LTSC serves as the central hub for studies of ECOG-ACRIN’s Leukemia Laboratory Committee, with the support of its Leukemia Translational Research Laboratory (LTRL) and Leukemia Tissue Bank. Through these initiatives, the LTSC has developed an extensive track record in translational research leadership and implementation of state-of-the-art correlative studies in leukemia biology.

The LTSC is further enhanced through its partnership with the New York Genome Center, which provides access to high-throughput genomics technologies, state-of-the-art genomic platforms, computational resources, and the capability to perform extensive, CLIA-certified, clinical genomics assays.

To maximally accelerate high-quality clinical trials based on the most important science, the LTSC offers an interaction framework that attracts junior and senior clinical investigators, laboratory scientists, computational biologists, biostatisticians, and others. This framework enables these individuals to form synergistic research teams. The LTSC hosts two symposia per year at the spring and fall ECOG-ACRIN group meetings.

Pilot Project Funding

The LTSC provides pilot project funding for cross-disciplinary teams. In support of pilot projects, the LTSC offers an extensive suite of scientific resources, including patient specimens, the LTRL, access to the New York Genome Center, genomic and epigenetic profiling databases, and scientific support. In this way, the LTSC ensures that translational scientific studies are seamlessly integrated into leukemia clinical trials to identify predictors of response/outcome, identify and test novel therapies, and develop innovative correlative studies to assess response to anti-leukemia therapies.