Welcome to the Heikamp Lab

Our work focuses on high-risk forms of leukemia that are driven by oncogenic fusion proteins. Oncogenic fusion proteins can promote epigenetic dysregulation in leukemia, and we are investigating whether targeted epigenetic therapies can thwart oncogenic fusion protein activity to enable differentiation of leukemia cells. Genes encoding epigenetic regulators are frequently involved in chromosomal translocations that produce oncogenic fusion proteins. The role of many of these epigenetic regulators in normal hematopoiesis is incompletely understood. We aim to systematically define the role of epigenetic regulators that are involved in oncogenic fusion proteins in normal and malignant hematopoiesis.