Patrizia Mondello, M.D., Ph.D.
- Associate Consultant I, Division of Hematology
- Assistant Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science
- Area of research: Hematologic malignancies
What sparked your interest in individualized medicine?
I have always been interested in understanding the molecular underpinnings of cancer development and devising new treatments that combine laboratory and clinical innovation to directly benefit patients.
My aim is to understand the mechanisms through which transcriptional and epigenetic regulation occurs during typical differentiation and how these processes become disrupted in human lymphomas. I want to use this information to develop specific and potent therapeutic strategies. To this end, my laboratory welcomes a diverse set of talents and fosters an interdisciplinary approach in its attempts to translate fundamental scientific discoveries into clinical innovations.
What is your focus as a Gerstner Family Career Development Award recipient?
The overarching focus of my research is studying the dysregulation and therapeutic targeting of chromatin modifiers and transcription factors as they relate to humoral immune response and hematologic malignancies.
Specifically, as a Gerstner Family awardee, I will focus on identifying the mechanisms by which IRF4 controls immune and development pathways. These signaling pathways are dysregulated in tumors with overexpression of IRF4, which leads to immune escape and more-aggressive clinical features. This research will be critical to design precision therapeutic approaches for different tumor types with increased IRF4 expression, such as lymphoma, multiple myeloma, leukemia and melanoma. My goal is to increase the cure rate while reducing treatment side effects.
How will your research improve patient care?
My research will explain the mechanisms through which atypical epigenetic programming causes lymphomagenesis. By extension, this will improve the understanding of how to effectively intervene therapeutically. Scientists could use this knowledge to develop precision epigenetic immunotherapy in B-cell lymphoma. Such precision therapy will ultimately reduce the need for chemotherapy and likely enhance the cure rate for patients.
How has the Gerstner Family Career Development Award helped advance your research?
The Gerstner Family Career Development Award has provided financial support for me to pursue this exciting project while also establishing a track record for future grant applications. This program will allow me to present my research proposal to faculties and colleagues with similar research interests to mine and receive feedback from them.
I will be able to connect with some of the most impactful scientists and clinicians of the world, who I hope will inspire me and provide me with a timely and comprehensive understanding of key developments in the lymphoid malignancies. These interactions will push me to think more broadly and in a more creative way, which will help me ask the right questions and ultimately move my research forward more effectively.
Because of the Gerstner Award, I will have opportunities to make connections and create a network to facilitate future collaborations. This is of vital importance, as successes in science rarely come from lone achievements, but rather through collaborative efforts.
Toward the end of the Gerstner Award, I will apply to R01 or equivalent funding awards to begin establishing myself as an independent investigator.
Why did you choose Mayo Clinic to explore research?
Mayo Clinic is one of the leading cancer centers in the U.S., involved in cutting-edge scientific research as well as clinical trials. At Mayo Clinic, I am exposed to an exceptionally robust academic research environment with outstanding scientific colleagues as well as superb core facilities and resources necessary to tackle this project.
Additionally, Mayo Clinic has a strong commitment to supporting junior faculty who are seeking academic careers, providing the protected research time, support and mentorship necessary to establish themselves as successful independent investigators.