Dr. Kira Gritsman is a hematologist-oncologist specializing in hematologic malignancies and an Associate Professor of Medical Oncology and Cell Biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center. She is co-leader of the Stem Cell and Cancer Biology program of the Montefiore-Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Gritsman’s laboratory focuses on how signaling pathways affect the mechanisms of self-renewal and impaired differentiation in leukemic and pre-leukemic stem cells in myeloid malignancies, including in myelodysplastic syndrome, acute myeloid leukemia and myeloproliferative neoplasms, with the goal of identifying new therapeutic approaches for these diseases. Her lab has uncovered important roles for the PI3 kinase signaling pathway in myeloid leukemia, in the hematopoietic stem cell stress response, and in the initiation of myelodysplastic syndrome. Her lab also studies the crosstalk between hematopoietic stem cells or leukemic cells and their bone marrow microenvironment and is working to identify novel secreted factors that participate in this crosstalk.