Accueil Functional precision medicine for leukemia

Functional precision medicine for leukemia

Raphaël Itzykson

Team leader

Research themes

Our research, grounded in clinical trials and academic and industrial partnerships, aims at developing methods to allocate personalized therapeutic combinations to leukemia patients. Our approach is based on pharmacological screening using high-throughput cytometry and integration of clinical and genetic data to identify new biomarkers.

Research areas

Bayesian prioritization of innovative therapeutic combinations

By applying an ex vivo pharmacological screening method under pseudo-niche culture conditions with multiparametric cytometric revelation to primary samples from AML patients, coupled with a Bayesian dose-response curve ranking approach developed in collaboration with S. Chevret’s team, this program aims to nominate innovative therapeutic combinations whose efficacy, synergy and potential biomarkers can be explored in pre-clinical in vitro (cell lines) and in vivo (CDX, PDX) models.

Precision medicine for relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia

This program aims to assess the contribution of precision medicine combining genomics (France Médecine Génomique) and ex vivo pharmacological screening in the management of very high-risk AML (patients at adverse genetic risk or who have failed conventional treatments) accrued to a multicenter acute myeloid leukemia observatory [ALFAPPP].

Targeting cystine import in acute myeloid leukemia

Following the identification of the xCT channel, responsible for importing the amino acid cystine into cells, as a vulnerability of leukemia cells, this axis aims to reposition sulfasalazine, non-selective inhibitor of the xCT system, in the management of AML (SALMA trial), to identify rational combinations including xCT targeting, and, in collaboration with a network of medicinal chemistry teams, to discover new pharmacological strategies for inhibiting this channel.

Featured research projects

Identification of new strategies for epigenetic targeting of AML

Screening of innovative combinations of drug candidates modifying the chromatin architecture of leukemia cells

Nuria Alvarez-Pizarroso

Targeting MPS1 in acute leukemia

Partnership research for pre-clinical evaluation of an MPS1 inhibitor in acute leukemia.

Thorsten Braun

Combinations targeting transduction pathways in AML

Screening of innovative combinations of drug candidates modifying leukemic intracellular signaling

Morgane Fontaine & Kevin Boumeghar

Team members

Thorsten Braun	Professor of hematology
Nuria Alvarez-Pizarroso	PhD student
Kevin Boumeghar	Master student
Jeannig Berrou	Engineer
Typhaine Dumas-Rivero	Associate Professor of hematology
Mélanie Dupont	Assistant Engineer
Morgane Fontaine	Engineer
Delphine Lebon	Post-doctoral researcher
Catherine Lonchamp	Technician
Kim Pacchiardi	Engineer
Pierre-Yves Sansen	Visiting scientist