Accueil Leukemia & Niche Dynamics

Leukemia & Niche Dynamics

Diana Passaro

Team Leader

Research themes

Our team investigates the dynamic interactions between leukemic cells and their vascular microenvironment. Combining in vivo imaging, humanized 3D models, and multi-omics approaches, we explore how the niche contributes to leukemia progression, treatment resistance, and immune evasion, particularly in the bone marrow and central nervous system.

Research areas

Vascular plasticity in acute myeloid leukemia (AML)

We explore how endothelial cell plasticity influences AML progression, treatment resistance, and the remodeling of the bone marrow microenvironment.

Modeling systemic dissemination of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL)

We develop vascularized bone marrow and brain organoids to model dynamic interactions between leukemic cells and their niches in preclinical systems.

Engineering the bone marrow niche for personalized medicine

We design a perfused Bone Marrow-on-chip platform to study the human bone marrow niche and model leukemic interactions, enabling evaluation of targeted treatments in a personalized medicine approach.

Featured research projects

Studying endothelial plasticity in AML

This project is funded by (research grant 2024–2029)

Diana Passaro

Role of endothelial cells in pediatric leukemias

This project is funded by Ligue Enfant, adolescent et cancer (research grant, 2024–2027).

Diana Passaro

T-ALL resistance via humanized organoids

This project is funded by Fondation de France (post-doctoral fellowship, 2023–2025).

Loic Le Guennec

Team Members

Diana Passaro	Group leader INSERM CRCN
Christine Tran Quang	Permanent researcher INSERM CRHC
Aleria Duperray-Susini	Research engineer (permanent) CNRS
Loic Le Guennec	Permanent Physician-researcher APHP/FDF fellowship
Celia Chobti	Research engineer (CDD) EHA grant
Houssem Zitoun	Bioinformatics engineer (CDD) ERC grant
Lakshmi Sandhow	Postdoctoral fellow (CDD) EHA fellowship
Joseph Barlow	Postdoctoral fellow (CDD) Ligue grant
Jessica Albuquerque	PhD student (year 3) HOB doctoral school fellowship
Rana Znaidi	PhD student (year 2) HOB doctoral school fellowship
Valentina Crippa	PhD student (year 1) HOB doctoral school fellowship
Benedetta Zanon	Erasmus trainee INSERM