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Joshua Epstein, DSc Professor of Medicine, Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy |
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Doctoral DegreeTechnion, Israel, Biology Postdoctoral Training Harvard University School of Medicine, Pediatrics
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| Molecular and cellular biology of myeloma and the bone marrow microenvironment | ||
| Myeloma is a B cell cancer, characterized by monoclonal expansion of malignant plasma cells that grow and disseminate primarily in the hematopoietic bone marrow. The presence of myeloma alters the balance between bone forming osteoblasts and bone destroying osteoclasts in the bone marrow microenvironment, resulting in severe bone destruction, termed lytic bone disease, myeloma's most debilitating manifestation. The long term goals of our laboratory is to understand the relationship between the changes in the bone microenvironment observed with the development of myeloma, and the biology of myeloma progression. Our recent studies indicate that development of myeloma and progression of the tumor depends on the bone-destroying activity of osteoclasts, and may be hindered by the activity of bone forming osteoblasts. Our working hypothesis stipulates that restoration of the bone marrow microenvironment to its normal functionality will help control myeloma development and progression. We use the in vitro cultures and the in vivo SCID-hu mouse model for myeloma that our lab developed, with the aid of modern imaging techniques, to develop approaches for restoring the normal balance of bone turnover that had been disrupted by myeloma as a means of alleviating the lytic bone disease and controlling myeloma. | ||
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