I am an Attending Pathologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and the Director of Bone and Soft Tissue Pathology. I oversee the pathologic evaluation of all patients with sarcoma treated at our institution. I am the Co-Leader of a research project as well as the Co-Director of the Administrative Core and Director of the Biospecimen Repository Core for the Soft Tissue Sarcoma SPORE that is currently up for renewal. I am also the Co-Director of the recently instituted MSK Sarcoma Center, an integrated multidisciplinary group of basic and clinical researchers. In 2004, as a result of an American Cancer Society Mentored Research Scholar Grant, I started my own sarcoma research laboratory dedicated to the detection and molecular characterization of diagnostic and prognostic markers in soft tissue sarcomas. Reflecting my prior training in molecular biology, my research has focused on three areas: (1) KIT oncogenic signaling in the pathogenesis of GIST and the mechanisms of drug resistance to targeted kinase inhibitor therapies; (2) oncogenic signaling in angiosarcoma, with the characterization of KDR (VEGFR2) activating mutations in breast angiosarcoma and MYC/FLT4 gene amplifications in radiation-associated angiosarcoma; and (3) fusion gene discovery and fusion transcript characterization in diagnosis and prognosis of soft tissue tumors. In the past five years, my lab has discovered a significant number of novel translocations, including NAB2-STAT6 in solitary fibrous tumor, YAP1-TFE3 and WWTR1-CAMTA1 in epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, miR143-NOTCH in malignant glomus tumors, and VGLL2-related fusions in congenital spindle cell rhabdomyosarcoma.

Current sarcoma types studied in the lab:

Angiosarcoma and radiation associated sarcomas

Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma

Pediatric and Young adults round cell sarcomas (CIC and BCOR sarcomas)

Leiomyosarcoma

Rhabdomyosarcoma

Clear cell sarcoma

Translocation associated sarcomas

GIST (gastrointestinal stromal tumors)

Epithelioid sarcoma

Soft tissue myoepithelial tumors