The Leukemia Research Foundation runs a story about our research

We are very honored to be highlighted by the Leukemia Research Foundation (LRF)! The LRF is an amazing Foundation that supports research that will one day lead to cures for blood cancers. They also offer many crucial forms of support for patients of families of patients with blood cancer. We were lucky enough to receive a grant from the LRF in 2019-2020 on our KAT6A project. With that support, we were able to push forward and complete our study without having to cut corners - thank you , LRF!!

https://allbloodcancers.org/2021/12/researcher-spotlight-m-andres-blanco-phd/

Janice joins the lab!

And our most recent lab member is our old friend, Janice Reynaga!! Janice is a 4th year student in Penn Med’s Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics program who had been doing her thesis in Ben Garcia’s lab. However, as Ben recently left for Wash U, Janice was looking for a new home. She had rotated with us in her first year so decided to come back - again, lucky us!! Janice brings along her extremely prestigious NSF fellowship as well her formidable skills in biochemistry. Welcome Janice!!

Diego joins the lab!

We got a star from the Penn PREP program! Diego Mendez is a postbac student who recently earned his bachelor’s from the University of Puerto Rico and was accepted to Penn’s prestigious PREP program, which is a postbac program for outstanding students who want to prepare more for graduate school before applying. Diego is co-mentored by Andres and Chris Lengner, and is studying colorectal cancer biology using organoid and in vivo models. Score!!

Maria joins the lab!

In the first of new lab members updates, this one happened a while ago, but…Maria Fernanda Carrera chose us for her thesis lab! Lucky us!! Maria is a 3rd year student in the Genetics & Epigenetics track of the Penn Med’s CAMB PhD program. She’s already passed her prelim with flying colors and is doing great work on her AML project! Yay!!

Yumi's Cancer Discovery paper is out!

Phenomenal work done by Yumi and collaborators! We used a differentiation-specific CRISPR screening system to identify KAT6A as a driver of stemness and proliferation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We propose a model in which KAT6A and ENL function as an H3K9ac-focused epigenetic “writer-reader” module to activate promoters of AML oncogenes. Read all about it in the Online First section of Cancer Discovery!

New paper out in Cell Reports, and lots more updates to come!

Hello world (again!). Been way too long without updates, but they’re coming! We managed through the shut down, it was difficult on everyone of course but science is still getting done! To share today: our paper on the how chromatin programs help “lock” cellular identity decisions into place (ie. the “point of no return paper”) is out today in Cell Reports. Check it out!

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(21)01446-7

Haijia Zhao joins the lab as an undergraduate intern

Haijia Zhao is a current undergraduate student at Peking University who decided to take a year away from classes to pursue research opportunities. Good call! Haijia was originally going to come to the lab in August of 2019, but visa issues got in the way bigtime. But she persevered, finally got the visa, and made it to Philly for the New Year! Haijia will work with Yumi and Josh on cell culture and mouse models of AML. Welcome, Haijia!

2019, in review!

It was an eventful 2019, but it seems there were no posts about it! Perhaps that has something to do with the PI having a kid and going into survival mode with very little sleep for months on end?? That may be a reasonable hypothesis…

So, here’s a recap of some of the highlights of lab in 2019!

  • The lab received a nice grant! Andres was awarded a Hollis Brownstein New Investigator grant from the Leukemia Research Foundation. But Yumi was the real hero here! The basis of the grant is Yumi’s project, which used a chromatin-focused CRISPR/Cas9 sgRNA screen to identify epigenetic regulators of the differentiation block in acute myeloid leukemia cells. Way to go Yumi!

  • We had a fantastic Summer Undergraduate Internship Program (SUIP) student on board: Juan Mesa. Juan is an undergraduate at the City University of New York (CUNY) who was accepted into the SUIP at Penn for the summer of 2019. Juan performed a successful screen in AML cells and helped establish CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) methodology in the lab - wow, what a summer!

  • Speaking of summer interns, our star undergraduate summer intern from 2018, Josh Rico, graduated from the University of Ottawa in 2019 and then came back to the lab as a visiting research scholar. We’re thrilled to have him back! Josh is working on colorectal cancer organoid models, and is also taking the reins on optimizing the lab’s CRISPRa screening methodology. Welcome back, Josh!

  • The Blanco lab got its feet wet on the publication front! A few collaborative efforts came to fruition - Yumi co-authored a pancreatic cancer screening paper with Ben Stanger’s lab, and Andres continued his long-standing collaboration with the lab of friend and neighbor Rumela Chakrabarti, contributing some statistical and bioinformatics analyses to her latest (in press) breast cancer paper. The lab also put out a review paper on the intersection of metabolic and epigenetic programs in chromatin state regulation. Finally, under the “can you believe it” category, the last of Andres’ contributions to research in Yibin Kang’s lab as a graduate student featured in a 2019 Kang Lab paper on hysteresis in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program. That sure was a long time coming! But it’s a cool story that integrated mathematical modeling and cell fate experiments to understand how breast cancer cells can utilize a form of cellular “memory” to influence metastatic progression. If ODEs and EMTs mean anything to you, this one is up your alley! Check the Publications section for more info about these papers.

  • More rotation students! We had first year PSOM PhD student Derrick Rosario on board for his first rotation period in the fall. Derrick worked on some biochemical protein-protein interaction experiments, and was an all-around great guy to have in the lab.

  • Finally, we also had some fun lab outings and events. A highlight may have been our “Labsgiving,” which may be becoming an annual event. Blanco Lab members and other friends in the Department had a big potluck the day before Thanksgiving. Our group is very international, but our passion for science is universal, so we gave our thanks to the science powers that be and enjoyed a lot of yummy food!

Lab Thanksgiving with friends and neighbors

Our lab is proudly International - Jamaica, Canada, China, USA, and Brazil are all represented in our group of 6! However, that means that many in the lab are a long ways from family members and may not yet have groups to celebrate the Holidays with. But in science you always have a family in your lab-mates! So, the Blanco lab joined up with our neighbors, the Chakrabarti lab, and had a big potluck-style Thanksgiving celebration. If nothing else, it was a good introduction for many to the great American Holiday tradition of eating way, waaaay too much - and loving it!! See pictures for some good shots.

Ricardo arrives!

After a long wait for his visa, Dr. Ricardo Petroni arrives to the lab from Sao Paulo, Brazil! Ricardo will be a Research Specialist in title, but in reality he’ll be doing a little bit of everything, from research to technical work to lab managing. He can do it all, and the lab is thrilled to have him on board! Welcome, Ricardo - to the United States, to Philly, and to the Blanco lab!!

Blanco lab rocks the summer retreat!

We pulled it off! In late August the lab rented a big ol’ van and road tripped it up to Boston and Cape Cod for a two-day retreat in Massachusetts! Fueled by music and coffee, we made it up North in great time. The lab spent Day 1 seeing Boston and Cambridge and meeting with colleagues, collaborators, and some old friends. At night we debated science and philosophy till the wee hours of the morning, nearly causing Yumi to quit the lab! Day 2 was spent relaxing on the beach in Cape Cod…see the pictures section for some fun action shots!