Abhijit Patel
Yale University, CT·Medicine & Clinical Research
People living with HIV are much more likely than others to develop non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), a cancer of immune cells. It is the leading cause of cancer death in this group in the USA.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Genetics
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
Epstein-Barr virus
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2031
What they work on
- Map the order in which methylation changes in Epstein-Barr virus DNA and host B-cell gene promoters appear in blood before lymphoma is diagnosed, using banked plasma from a long-term cohort of people with HIV.
- Build a predictive algorithm from tumor-derived cell-free DNA methylation patterns and measure its sensitivity and specificity for detecting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma early in people with HIV.
- Develop a longitudinal blood test that follows each person's own lymphoma-linked methylation signals over time, using the group's genome-wide liquid biopsy method for profiling hypermethylation.
More about the research
Antiretroviral drugs have lowered how often it occurs, but rates remain well above those in the general population. People with HIV also tend to be diagnosed at a later stage and to fare worse. Catching the cancer before symptoms appear, when cure rates are higher, is therefore a major priority. This project aims to build a blood test that could do that.
Why it matters
Lymphoma is the leading cause of cancer death among people living with HIV, and it is often found late. A blood test that spots lymphoma-related DNA changes before symptoms appear could let doctors diagnose and treat the disease earlier, when cure rates are higher. This could improve survival for people with HIV.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ethel Cesarman
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Identify how key germinal center cytokines, the signaling proteins in lymph nodes where B cells mature, act on enzymes that chemically mark DNA and histones to alter the EBV genome and choose which latency program the virus uses.
David Peters
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Genetics
Develop cell-free DNA methylation analysis of maternal plasma that predicts the clinical trajectory of pregnancies diagnosed with mild or severe preeclampsia.
Shannon Kenney
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether primary human germinal center B cells infected with the lab's EBNA2-deleted EBV mutant, with or without MYC overexpression, form Burkitt-, Hodgkin- or diffuse large B cell lymphoma-like tumors in immunodeficient NSG mice.
The school
Yale University: 73 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 438 research doctorates a year.
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