Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation welcomes new Medical Advisory Board member Dr. Eirini Papapetrou
We are delighted to welcome Dr. Eirini Papapetrou to the Medical Advisory Board of Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research!
Dr. Papapetrou is a Professor of Oncological Sciences, Hematology and Medical Oncology and founding Director of the Center for Advancement of Blood Cancer Therapies at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She obtained MD and PhD degrees and trained as a clinical hematologist at the University of Patras in Greece. During her postdoctoral studies at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, she pioneered the generation of patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and their use in disease modeling and regenerative medicine, and developed cutting edge technologies for the genetic engineering of iPSCs and hematopoietic stem cells for cell and gene therapy.
As an independent investigator, first at the University of Washington and, since 2014, at ISMMS, she performed groundbreaking research that established human iPSCs as models of myeloid malignancies – specifically acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) –, as well as premalignant conditions – inherited bone marrow failure syndromes (IBMFS) and clonal hematopoiesis (CH). The Papapetrou laboratory is now the world leading laboratory in the study of blood cancers with iPSC models. By combining patient cell reprogramming with CRISPR/Cas9-mediated precise gene editing, the Papapetrou laboratory develops models of myeloid leukemias and preleukemic blood disorders and exploits the unique capabilities they offer: the ability to perform genotype-to-phenotype studies and to study the oncogenic mechanisms of driver mutations in a faithful cellular and genomic environment; to obtain large numbers of homogeneous cells for multi-omics analyses, genetic and small molecule screens; and to validate findings through functional assays in isogenic conditions. With these models and strategies Dr Papapetrou’s research program seeks to uncover novel disease mechanisms and identify and validate new therapeutic targets.
Dr. Papapetrou is the recipient of several awards, including the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Outstanding New Investigator Award, Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, Pershing Square Sohn Prize, AACR-MPM, and others, and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. She also co-directs the Stem Cell Engineering Core at ISMMS. Since 2023, she serves as inaugural Director of the Center for Advancement of Blood Cancer Therapies at ISSMS, a new Center that aims to expand the use of human models of leukemia and other blood diseases and bring together basic, translational and clinical researchers to accelerate the development of new therapies for hematologic malignancies.
We are honored to have Dr. Papaetrou’s join our Medical Advisory Board and welcome her to the Gabrielle’s Angels Family!