Director

Dr. Ari Melnick

Dr. Ari Melnick is a recognized leader in the fields of hematologic malignancies and cancer epigenetics. Among his major contributions are the first large-scale epigenomic studies in humans, which demonstrated that aberrant epigenetic programming is a hallmark of cancer and that epigenetic diversity is a key determinant of tumor fitness and poor clinical outcomes. These findings led to important mechanistic insights—for example, how mutations in IDH1 and IDH2 disrupt the epigenome through the production of an aberrant oncometabolite, and how mutations in TET2, WT1, IDH1/2, and FLT3 promote leukemogenesis through cooperative epigenetic reprogramming. This was the basis for him receiving the ASH Beutler Award for Outstanding Translational Research in 2020.

Dr. Melnick has played a foundational role in establishing the importance of epigenetic dysfunction in lymphomagenesis, elucidating the mechanistic roles of chromatin modifiers such as EZH2, CREBBP, EP300, KDM1A, KMT2D, HIST1H1, BTG1, ARID1A, TBL1XR1, and TET2. He has also pioneered studies on nuclear topology and its role in regulating the humoral immune response and the malignant transformation of B cells.

In the therapeutic arena, Dr. Melnick has developed novel targeted therapies against key lymphoma oncoproteins such as BCL6, SIRT3, and MALT1, and has helped define the rationale for additional targets, including EZH2. Several of these therapeutic approaches have received FDA approval or progressed to phase III clinical trials. He has authored more than 350 scientific publications, held numerous national leadership roles, organized prominent scientific conferences, and devoted extensive effort to mentoring trainees and junior faculty—many of whom now lead distinguished careers in basic and translational research. Dr. Melnick serves on the Board of Directors of both the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Lymphoma Research Foundation. He also has extensive experience initiating and leading multi-center and international research consortia and is currently the Principal Investigator of several program grants, including two active LLS SCOR and RAFL programmatic grants.

Dr. Melnick is currently the Director of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute in Barcelona, one of the only free-standing bench to bedside Blood Cancer Research center in the World.