Benjamin J. Huang, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, UCSF; Attending Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist, UCSF
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, UCSF; Attending Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist, UCSF
I am a physician-scientist whose research program focuses on mouse cancer modeling, molecular therapeutics, functional genomics, and biomarker discovery in hematologic cancers. Our recent data indicate that targeting downstream Ras effector pathways and aberrant transcriptional programs is highly synergistic in vivo and represents a novel approach for the treatment of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Additional contributions to science include collaborations that have involved targeting RAS/NF1-driven cancers and the implementation of computational pipelines for analyzing integrated (epi)genetic preclinical and clinical data. These collaborations include recent projects that incorporate primary samples from patients enrolled on North American Children's Oncology Group clinical trials, as well as early phase clinical trials.
As a represented example, the use of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) or bone marrow transplantation (BMT) as consolidation therapy for AML diagnosed in children, adolescents, and young adults has been debated for decades. We combined clinical, laboratory, and high-throughput sequencing data from the last two frontline AML clinical trials through the Children’s Oncology Group. Our study includes the largest contemporary pediatric AML BMT study cohort and is the first study to incorporate cryptic high-risk fusions that are only identified using RNA high-throughput sequencing methodologies. The results of our analysis are the first to indicate that children, adolescents, and young adults with high-risk AML defined by contemporary criteria benefit from HSCT or BMT in first complete remission.
Our overall goal is to develop new therapeutic strategies in AML to inform biology-driven, genetically stratified trials of innovative drug combinations.
University of California, Berkeley, BS, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
University of California, San Francisco, MD, Medicine
University of California, San Francisco, Residency, Pediatrics
University of California, San Francisco, Fellowship, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology