The laboratory’s work is divided into three key areas. First, it collaborates broadly with other scientists to help use genome informatics (also known as bioinformatics) to answer important questions in cancer biology, with a majority of this collaborative work also focused in leukemia. Second, the laboratory develops software for computational biology and bioinformatics that is broadly applicable in cancer research. And finally, in the lab's own leukemia-focused work, it examines functional genomic biomarkers from clinical trials to help inform contemporary treatment and guide the development of future therapeutics.
Mission
The Blachly Lab’s mission is to advance research in understanding the role genetics and genomics play in the development, progression and treatment of blood cancers — especially acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) — and return that information back to the clinic, informing the design of future clinical trials to improve patient care.
Members
James S. Blachly, MD – Principal Investigator
Research
The Blachly Lab brings a unique measure of medicine, molecular biology and computer science to The Ohio State University Experimental Hematology Lab. By applying bioinformatics, the laboratory can solve problems in biomedicine in creative ways.
The Blachly Lab invented and was the first to describe what is now the standard method for genome-free immunoglobulin sequence reconstruction for B cell receptors.
C. Thomas Gregory discovered and described a sequencing artifact originating from physically deranged molecules in next-generation sequencing libraries and provide software to filter these artifacts.
Blachly Lab, in collaboration with Lapalombella Lab, has used massively multiplex/pooled CRISPR screening to discover new synergistic combinations of medicines for AML.
Funding
The Blachly Lab is grateful to have been supported by the Alliance Foundation for Clinical Trials, the Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation and the Sass Foundation, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, the Pelotonia Foundation, the Ohio Supercomputer Center and StorageReview.com.