Our Lab
The Brown lab has been at the forefront of the rapid developments in CLL biology and therapy over the last decade, with a particular focus on somatic and germline genetics. Our translational work has spanned the targeted agents but has had a particular focus on idelalisib and PI3 kinase inhibitors, for which we described the unique pattern of autoimmune toxicity and its association with a decrease in regulatory T lymphocytes. This work is ongoing, aimed at understanding and mitigating the immunologic basis of this toxicity as well as understanding mechanisms of resistance, not just to idelalisib but to all of the targeted agents in CLL. We also continue our work toward defining the genetic mechanisms of the heritability of CLL and lymphoma. For all of these projects we leverage two major tissue banks that we built and maintain in the laboratory, one focused on CLL with a particular wealth of serial samples and clinical trial samples, and the second focused on families with multiple individuals affected by CLL and lymphoma.