Physician Investigator (Cl) Cancer Center, Mass General Research Institute

Assistant Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School

Assistant Physician Medicine-Hematology/Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital

Principal Faculty Harvard Stem Cell Institute

MD Free University Medical School of Berlin 1989

PhD Free University Medical School of Berlin 1991

core binding factor alpha 2 subunit; dna-binding proteins; embryonic development; growth and development; hematopoiesis; hematopoietic stem cells; histone-lysine n-methyltransferase; leukemia; leukemia-lymphoma adult t-cell; lymphoma; myelopoiesis; neutrophils; oncogene proteins fusion; proto-oncogene proteins c-ets; repressor proteins; transcription factors

The Hock laboratory explores the molecular basis of blood cell formation and the pathogenesis of leukemia and lymphoma.

Specifically, we study the transcription factors that regulate gene activity during normal blood cell development and how the transcriptional apparatus goes awry in cancer.

For example, we have developed important insights into a network of transcription factors that help maintain blood stem cells in the bone marrow; this work could lead to new strategies for increasing the yield of stem cells for bone marrow transplantation.

Another project in our laboratory focuses on deciphering the multistep process that leads to lymphoblastic leukemia of childhood, with the goal of identifying new drug targets for this devastating disease.

Finally, we are interested in how DNA packaging affects the interaction between genes and transcription factors, especially with regard to oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes important in human cancer.