Leonidas C. Platanias, MD, PhD
Director, Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center
Jesse, Sara, Andrew, Abigail, Benjamin and Elizabeth Lurie Professor of Oncology
Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Oncology) and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Research Program
- Translational Research in Malignancy (TRIM)
Cancer-Focused Research
Dr. Platanias' laboratory is focused on studying abnormalities in signal transduction pathways in malignant myeloid cells. The ultimate goal of the work in Dr. Platanias' laboratory is to identify intermediates for molecular therapeutic approaches to myeloid leukemia. Dr. Platanias' laboratory has been working on the mechanisms of action of arsenic trioxide in leukemia cells. His laboratory has identified several cellular cascades that are activated in a negative feedback regulatory manner during treatment of cells with arsenic and whose inhibition enhances generation of the inhibitory effects of arsenic trioxide on primitive leukemic progenitors. In other work, he has been studying the activation of signaling pathways by the BCR-ABL oncoprotein. His laboratory has demonstrated an important role for the mTOR pathway in growth and survival of BCR-ABL expressing cells and has established that dual mTORC1/mTORC2 targeting results in antileukemic effects in cells expressing the T315I BCR-ABL mutation, which is resistant to all known BCR-ABL kinase inhibitors. He has been also working in targeting signaling cascades in clinical-translational efforts for acute myeloid leukemia.