ASCI / Emerging-Generation Awards, 2023
The Emerging Generation Awards (E-Gen Awards) recognize post-MD, pre-faculty appointment physician-scientists who are meaningfully engaged in immersive research.
About the awardee
Emily B. Heikamp, MD, PhD, MSc is a physician-scientist and Instructor in Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where her clinical and research interests focus on patients with hematologic malignancies. Her research aims to elucidate the mechanisms of epigenetic dysregulation by oncogenic fusion proteins in leukemia. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Heikamp's goal is to translate her research discoveries into targeted, epigenetic therapies for patients with relapsed or refractory leukemia.
For the past three years, Dr. Heikamp has been working with Dr. Scott Armstrong at Dana-Farber to understand how oncogenic fusion proteins drive epigenetic dysregulation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Specifically, she is studying AML driven by chromosomal translocations involving the Nucleoporin 98 (NUP98) gene, which produce oncogenic NUP98 fusion proteins (NUP98-fp). Patients with NUP98-fp AML have an extremely poor prognosis. Dr. Heikamp's work on NUP98-fp AML has revealed a novel drug target that is being rapidly translated into ongoing clinical trials. Her research revealed a novel molecular dependency on the mixed-lineage leukemia 1 (MLL1, also known as KMT2A) histone methyltransferase and Menin chromatin complex in NUP98-fp AML. Since small molecule inhibitors of the MLL1-Menin interaction are already in early phase clinical trials, Dr. Heikamp's work provided pre-clinical justification for including NUP98-fp patients, a group in desperate need of targeted therapies, in these trials.
Dr. Heikamp's goal is to become an independent investigator in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, focusing on the study of oncogenic fusion proteins in hematologic malignancies. As a physician scientist, 80% of her time is dedicated to research, and 20% of her time is devoted to patient care. As she transitions to become the independent leader of her own laboratory, she will continue my work on NUP98-fusion proteins, though will expand her focus to study additional oncogenic fusion proteins as her career advances and her interests broaden.