Principal Investigator

Markus Müschen, MD-PhD, is the Director of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Hematology, and Professor of Immunobiology at Yale University. He also serves as Chief of the Division of Basic Science of Yale Cancer Center. His research program focuses on signal transduction mechanisms in lymphoid malignancies and how these pathways can be intercepted for the treatment of drug-resistant leukemia and lymphoma. His laboratory established new conceptual frameworks for the understanding of B-cell signaling and energy metabolism and how these mechanisms are altered in lymphoid malignancies. Markus Müschen studied medicine at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany, Université de Nantes, France and the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. After his clinical training in hematology-oncology with Volker Diehl at the University of Cologne, he completed postdoctoral fellowships in immunology with Klaus Rajewsky and Ralf Küppers and in leukemia genetics with Janet D. Rowley at the University of Chicago. Before coming to Yale, Markus Müschen’s laboratory was at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF, 2010-2017) where he served as Program Leader of the Hematological Malignancies Program at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center. Markus Müschen is currently a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Faculty Scholar, an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Connecticut Academy of Science and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lymphoma Research Foundation. His research has been supported by an NCI Outstanding Investigator Award (R35) since 2016. As Director of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology at Yale, he serves as mentor for nine junior faculty. Müschen Laboratory Drug Discovery platform: http://lymphoblasts.org/

Ojas graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2025 with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. At Hopkins, he pursued a concentration in immunoengineering and conducted research in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine and Plastic Surgery. In the Müschen Lab, Ojas plans to investigate ferroptosis as a therapeutic approach in B-cell malignancies before entering medical school.

I graduated from Zhejiang University, China, with a B.S. degree in biological sciences. In my undergraduate school, I joined a lab focusing on bacteria interactions with host innate immune responses and is lucky to be mentored by a talented and diligent graduate student. Now I am happy to be a graduate student in Markus Lab, focusing on MYC and BCL6, due to their interesting oscillated expression pattern in cancer cells and across B cell development. In my spare time, I like to play Genshin Impact and add more things to my home.

During my Ph.D. at the Technical University of Dresden, I developed a novel humanized mouse model that supports stable engraftment of human hematopoietic stem cells and multilineage engraftment under physiological conditions (Cosgun et. al., Cell Stem Cell). This model established a more faithful platform for human hematopoiesis and hematologic disease, enabling new avenues for mechanistic and therapeutic discovery. During my postdoctoral career at the University of California, San Francisco, City of Hope, and Yale University, I investigated signaling dependencies in hematologic malignancies. I discovered that hematopoietic cells have a unique dependence on intact β-catenin degradation machinery for survival (Cosgun et al., Nature Cancer). My work demonstrated that disrupting this pathway induces repressive β-catenin-Ikaros-NuRD complexes, suppresses MYC, and selectively eliminates leukemia cells, revealing an unexpected therapeutic vulnerability in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In ongoing work, I have been using genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screening to uncover additional mechanisms regulating β-catenin stability and therapeutic response in treatment-resistant lymphoid malignancies. Building on these discoveries, my ongoing research seeks to understand how signaling pathways function in a context-dependent manner across normal and malignant hematopoiesis. I am particularly interested in how genetic alterations, cellular state, and disease context shape signaling dependencies and create selective vulnerabilities across myeloid and lymphoid malignancies. By defining the mechanisms that determine why the same signaling pathway can have distinct effects across cellular and disease contexts, my research aims to identify therapeutic strategies that selectively target malignant cells while preserving normal hematopoiesis.

Leo graduated from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico in December 2024 with a B.S. in Biotechnology Engineering. During his junior year, he conducted research on nanobiomaterial-based cancer immunotherapy at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Wyss Institute as part of the Artzi Lab. He joined the Müschen Lab in October 2025, where he's investigating ferroptosis and the modulation of oncogenic tyrosine kinase signaling as novel strategies to induce cell death in B cell malignancies as part of his preparation for graduate school.

My research focuses on advancing the immunotherapy of cancer and autoimmune diseases through antibody engineering, cell engineering, and gene perturbation. Using tools such as CRISPR screen, gene editing, and click chemistry, I work to identify new targets that enhance the efficacy of CAR-T / -NK, bispecific antibody, and iPSC-derived therapies, and fine-tune therapeutic design based on the biology of cancer cells, immune cells, and the tumor microenvironment. My long-term goal is to enable the translation of mechanistic understanding into innovative therapies that improve outcomes and meaningfully benefit patients.

Jodi is a pediatric hematology-oncology fellow at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital. She completed her medical school training at Tufts University School of Medicine prior to moving to Yale for her pediatric residency. She hopes to pursue a career as a physician-scientist dedicating her research to improving the outcomes of children with high-risk relapsed or refractory leukemias.

William “Tyler” Frantz is a Pediatrics Resident in the American Board of Pediatrics Integrated Research Pathway at the Yale School of Medicine. He completed his MD/PhD at the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Medical Scientist Training Program. There, under the mentorship of Dr. Craig Ceol, he leveraged zebrafish to model melanocyte stem cells during regeneration. In addition to his clinical work as a pediatrics resident, Tyler studies hematopoiesis and leukemia predisposition genomics under the mentorship of Dr. Markus Müschen.

Takeshi Ito, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Research Scientist working with Dr. Halene and Dr. Müschen. He earned his Ph.D. from Kyoto University, Japan, in 2018, where he studied the role of bone marrow endothelial cells, a component of bone marrow stromal cells, in regulating the immune system. Additionally, he is a board-certified clinical hematologist and a member of the Japanese Society of Hematology. His research focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms that suppress MDS clones and exploring potential new therapeutic targets. The goal of his research is to unravel new molecular mechanisms for controlling hematologic malignancies and translate these findings into effective treatments.

Ka-Won Kang is a hematologist at Korea University. Her research focuses on lymphoid hematologic diseases, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Her recent studies include the identification of novel biomarkers in leukemia through extracellular vesicle microRNA profiling and proteomic analysis. She has also investigated the mechanisms of hematopoietic stem cell mobilization. She is currently engaged in translational research on hematologic malignancies and is dedicated to advancing novel therapeutic strategies to improve patient outcomes.

Lars Klemm obtained his B.Sc. from the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany and subsequently got his M.Sc. from the same university in 2009. He has been the Laboratory Manager for the Müschen Lab since 2006. Lars is responsible for keeping the Müschen Lab operational, assisting the team with their experiments and finding/researching new technologies that can be applied to our studies.

Shalin Kothari, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Hematology) at Yale University. Dr. Kothari completed his residency in Internal Medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University and his Hematology and Medical Oncology fellowship through the University at Buffalo/Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center where he was the Chief Fellow. He received his Medical Degree from Gujarat University in India. Dr. Kothari specializes in the treatment of lymphomas. His research is focused on using his clinical skills and basic science knowledge to answer scientific questions focused on mechanistic understanding of lymphoma therapeutics and its translation in the form of early-phase clinical trials for various aggressive forms of B-cell lymphomas including mantle cell lymphoma. He also conducts research in the Müschen Laboratory here at Yale University with a specific focus on developing new therapies for mantle cell lymphoma. He is a Lymphoma Research Foundation (LRF) Scholar, and an inductee of the ASH Advocacy Leadership Institute and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. He has presented his research in multiple national and international meetings and has won abstract achievement and travel awards.

Dr. Kohei Kume completed his PhD at Iwate University (Morioka, Japan) in 2011 with mentorship from Yasushi Saitoh, PhD. After a postdoctoral training at Iwate Medical University with mentorship from Satoshi S. Nishizuka MD, PhD, he joined Dr. Markus Müschen’s laboratory in 2017 at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope. He is currently a Research Scientist in Dr. Müschen’s laboratory at Yale University, and studies the mechanisms and functional significance of autonomous Ca2+ oscillations in oncogenic signaling of multiple B-cell malignancies.

Anna graduated with a B.E in Genetic Engineering from SRM university in August 2024. Her Bachelor’s thesis was at the Brigham and Women’s hospital (Harvard) under the guidance of Drs. Vinay Mahajan and Shiladitya Sengupta. She developed a unique and scalable chemistry for generating nanobody drug conjugates that are poised to treat fibrotic disorders like SSc.She joined the Müschen lab in August 2025 where she will work with Dr. Cosgun to investigate Wnt/Beta-catenin signaling in B cell malignancies with a therapeutic approach.

My research interest lies mainly in discovering the novel molecular target to treat B cell leukemia and lymphoma. To do that, our lab leverages genetic engineered mouse model to study the role of gene of interests in 1) B cell development, 2) BCR-mediated immune response and 3) leukemogenesis.

Etienne Leveille, MD, PhD, is an Instructor of Medicine in the Section of Hematology & Oncology at Yale School of Medicine, where he trained as a fellow in the ABIM Physician-Scientist Research Pathway. He completed medical school at McGill University, where he studied the genetics of Parkinson's disease and hereditary spastic paraplegia under Dr. Ziv Gan-Or, and mechanisms of apoptosis inhibition in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma with Dr. Nathalie Johnson. While at McGill, Etienne also served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the McGill Journal of Medicine. He is a member of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, where he studies ferroptosis and other novel therapeutic approaches in B-cell malignancies under the mentorship of Dr. Markus Müschen.

Stephen graduated from UC Berkeley in 2023 with a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology. As an undergraduate, he conducted research in Dr. Jennifer Doudna's lab, where he investigated the role of the transcription factor GABP in reactivating the TERT promoter. He also worked in Dr. Jennifer Brown’s lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he contributed to translational research projects in CLL. His work focused on characterizing the efficacy of the noncovalent BTK inhibitor pirtobrutinib in primary CLL cells from patients with acquired ibrutinib resistance driven by BTK C481S mutations. He also explored immune-related toxicities associated with PI3Kδ inhibition, identifying a correlation between elevated circulating Th17 cells at treatment initiation and the development of autoimmune toxicity. As a graduate student in Dr. Markus Müschen's lab, he is currently investigating therapeutic strategies that exploit hyperactivation of oncogenic signaling pathways in B-cell malignancies.

Xin Meng is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology (CMCO) at Yale Cancer Center. She received her MD from Chongqing Medical University in 2016, followed by an MS in Pediatrics (2019) and a PhD in Immunology (2023) from Fudan University, where her research focused on the genetic mechanisms of inborn errors of immunity and B-cell–driven autoimmunity. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Huashan Hospital of Fudan University, Xin joined the Müschen lab in 2026 as a recipient of the Lymphoma Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, where she investigates BCR signaling and the mechanisms underlying B-cell malignancies.

During my PhD at Cardiff University I developed novel bioinformatics methods to analyze nucleosome maps generated by MNase-digest sequencing in order to understand the roles of chromatin remodelers in controlling developmental expression programs through nucleosome positioning. Following my PhD I moved to the lab of Dr. Niklas Feldhahn at Imperial College London where I first became interested in hematological oncology research. Our work mapping DNA-damage and enhancer reprogramming in transformed B-cells helped to explain why lineage specific markers recurrently mutated in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). I also performed topology mapping to identify oncogenic enhancer co-option, uncovering the mechanisms of MECOM expression and function underlying the dismal prognosis of this subset of acute myeloid leukemia patients. To further my interest in computational hematology-oncology I joined the lab of Dr. Markus Müschen in 2019 working alongside bench scientists to identify novel therapeutic vulnerabilities of B-cell malignancies. Through integrative analysis of clinical, transcriptional, proteomic and phosphoproteomics data in B-ALL and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) models I helped uncover an unexpected mechanism of lipid-raft formation leading to PI3K amplification loop downstream of the B-cell receptor. Working alongside Dr. Lai Chan, my identification of mutational segregation between patient cohorts with STAT5- and ERK-pathway driven B-ALL helped lead to the development of a concept of oncogene convergence. This work showed that convergence on a single oncogenic driver was essential for development of B-ALL, and that activation of divergent pathways subverts oncogenesis. This convergence theory gives rise to the exciting possibility of combining divergent pathway activation synergistically with principal driver inhibition as a novel therapeutic strategy. By extending this analysis to study all major oncogenic pathways pan-cancer I now aim to identify whether oncogenic convergence is unique to B-ALL, or whether it represents a new hallmark of cancer that can be exploited to design personalized combination therapies.

Ruoyi Shi is an undergraduate of Zhejiang University majoring in Biological Sciences. She joined the Müschen Lab in July 2024 and is mentored by Zhangliang. Ruoyi is currently looking forward to comprehending the role of MYC and BCL6 dynamics by probing B-cell development under different expression patterns utilizing optogenetic systems.