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What is your name?
Juan Carlos Balandrán Juárez
What is your current position?
PhD Student, Molecular Biomedicine
Which institute and country do you work in?
Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico
What is your home country?
Mexico
What are your research interests?
Leukemia-initiating cells, tumor micronvironment, Oncoimmunology
Tell us about yourself and your research interests:
The major interest of the laboratory where I have been trained for the last years is the study of early hematopoietic differentiation of lymphoid cells in the pathogenesis of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. My studies have focused on the role of the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment in the origin, maintenance and immunosurveillance of abnormal cell production using stromal cell 2-D co-culture systems. However, I have extended our findings to more natural architecture and developed novel three-dimensional organoid-like structures using human BM mesenchymal stromal cells and leukemic cells derived from ALL patients, which better mimics the cellular interactions between hematopoieic cells and their niches. By using this powerful ex-vivo model, my major goal is to understand the pathobiology of the leukemic niche and the microenvironmental regulation of leukemic cell population dynamics within malignant BM. Of note, I have special in investigating the tumor microenvironment-associated drug resistance of primitive leukemia-initiating cells (LICs), for this proposal, I will bring in my expertise in human-human personalized 3D system construction, multiparameter flow cytometry, confocal microscopy and xenotransplantation modeling to develop a high-throughput system that will provide a unique way to discover new therapies that target LICs in the context of their supportive niche.
What are your online profiles?
LinkedIn – JC Balandran
Researchgate – Juan Balandran
Immunology Keywords: Leukemia, hematopoiesis, oncoimmunology
