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INFORMATION FOR

Markus Müschen, MD, PhD

Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Medicine (Hematology) and Professor of Immunobiology
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Appointments

Medical Oncology and Hematology
Primary
Immunobiology
Secondary

Additional Titles

Director, Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology

Chief, Division of Basic Science, Yale Cancer Center

Contact Info

markus.muschen@yale.edu

Yale School of Medicine

300 George Street

New Haven, CT 06520

United States

About

Titles

Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Medicine (Hematology) and Professor of Immunobiology

Director, Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology; Chief, Division of Basic Science, Yale Cancer Center

Biography

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/

Appointments

  • Medical Oncology and Hematology

    Professor
    Primary

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

Visiting Assistant Professor
Children's Hospital Los Angeles and University of Southern California (2009)
Residency and Fellowship
University of Cologne (2006)
PhD
Institute for Genetics Cologne, Immunology (2003)
MD-PhD thesis
University of Cologne (2003)
Postdoctoral fellowship
University of Chicago (2002)
Postdoctoral fellowship
Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne (2000)
MD
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Biochemistry (1999)
MD thesis
Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf (1999)

Research

Overview

Since 2009, the Müschen laboratory has established new conceptual frameworks for the understanding of B-cell signaling and energy metabolism and how defects in these mechanisms contribute to autoimmunity and B-cell transformation. Influenced by his postdoctoral training in basic immunology (Klaus Rajewsky and Ralf Küppers) and cancer genetics (Janet D. Rowley), Dr. Müschen is particularly interested in signal transduction pathways that change the clinical trajectory of human B-cell malignancies and B-cell driven autoimmune diseases. To generate hypotheses and for target discovery, his laboratory builds on clinical outcome predictors: in collaboration with multiple study teams across the US, his group developed and validated phenotypic biomarkers of favorable and poor clinical outcomes in B-cell malignancies and integrated these markers into models of oncogenic signaling pathways. As PI of the NCI CTEP ‘Human hematopoiesis and leukemia PDX’ program, his laboratory developed PDX resources to model B-cell malignancies based on patient-derived cells and cord blood-based humanized mouse models to study mechanisms of human B-lymphopoiesis in vivo.

In 2010, Dr. Müschen joined the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) as full professor with tenure and served as Program Leader of the Hematological Malignancies Program at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is currently a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Faculty Scholar and supported by an NCI Outstanding Investigator Award (R35). The Müschen laboratory consists of 18 trainees and staff. So far, 16 of his former trainees have become tenured or tenure-track faculty in academic research at institutions including UCSF, Imperial College, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, WEHI, TU Munich, SIBS Shanghai, Penn State and University of Cologne. At Yale University, Dr. Müschen serves as Director of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology and as a mentor for six junior faculty.

Medical Research Interests

Activating Transcription Factors; Antibody Affinity; Antibody Specificity; Antigen Presentation; Arthritis, Rheumatoid; Autoimmune Diseases; Autoimmune Lymphoproliferative Syndrome; Autophagy; B-Lymphocytes; Burkitt Lymphoma; Cell Death; Cell Division; Cell Lineage; Cell Size; Cellular Reprogramming; Clonal Evolution; Clonal Selection, Antigen-Mediated; DNA Damage; Endocytosis; Energy Metabolism; Gene Rearrangement; Genes, Immunoglobulin; Genes, Immunoglobulin Heavy Chain; Hematologic Diseases; Hodgkin Disease; Immunity; Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes; Immunoreceptor Tyrosine-Based Activation Motif; Leukemia; Leukemia, B-Cell; Leukemia, Hairy Cell; Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell; Leukemia, T-Cell; Leukemia-Lymphoma, Adult T-Cell; Lipid Metabolism; Lymphocyte Activation; Lymphoma; Lymphoma, B-Cell; Lymphoma, B-Cell, Marginal Zone; Lymphoma, Follicular; Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse; Lymphoma, Large-Cell, Anaplastic; Lymphoma, Large-Cell, Immunoblastic; Lymphoma, Mantle-Cell; Lymphoma, T-Cell; Lymphoma, T-Cell, Cutaneous; Metabolism; Molecular Mimicry; Oncogene Addiction; Optogenetics; Oxygen Consumption; Phosphorylation; Plasmablastic Lymphoma; Precursor B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma; Precursor T-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma; Preleukemia; Receptors, Antigen, B-Cell; Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell; Signal Transduction; Wnt Signaling Pathway

Public Health Interests

Cancer; Genetics, Genomics, Epigenetics; Immunology; Metabolism

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Markus Müschen's published research.

Publications

2024

See All Publications

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

Activities

  • activity

    Biological Chemistry

    10/01/2009 - PresentJournal ServiceAssociate Editor
  • activity

    NIH Molecular Oncogenesis (MONC) study section

    10/01/2016 - PresentPeer Review Groups and Grant Study SectionsMember
  • activity

    Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades Scientific Advisory Board

    10/01/2018 - PresentAdvisory BoardsScientific Advisor
  • activity

    Scientific Advisory Board

    06/01/2021 - PresentAdvisory BoardsMember
  • activity

    Scientific Advisory Board

    07/01/2023 - PresentAdvisory BoardsMember
View full list of activities

Honors

  • honor

    Elected Member

    04/01/2023National AwardConnecticut Academy of Science
  • honor

    NCI Outstanding Investigator Award 2021

    11/01/2021National AwardNational Cancer Institute
  • honor

    Elected Member, ASCI

    10/01/2019National AwardAmerican Society of Clinical Investigation
  • honor

    18th Annual Maxwell M. Wintrobe Endowed Lecture

    10/01/2018National AwardUniversity of Utah
  • honor

    Stephen D. Williams, MD, Lectureship

    10/01/2018National AwardIndiana University
View full list of honors

Get In Touch

Contacts

Email
Mailing Address

Yale School of Medicine

300 George Street

New Haven, CT 06520

United States

Administrative Support

Locations

  • Center of Molecular and Cellular Oncology

    Lab

    300 George Street, Fl 6th floor, Ste Müschen Laboratory, Rm 6410

    New Haven, CT 06511

    Get Directions