Alex Kentsis, MD, PhD

Department	Hematology/Oncology
Hospital Title	Staff Physician, Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Academic Title	Instructor in Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Phone	617-632-4130
Fax	617-632-4410
Email	Alex Kentsis
Location	450 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215

Research Overview

Our current work focuses on aberrant signaling and gene expression in high-risk myeloid leukemias and renal tumors, and we have made new discoveries linking receptor co-activation to aberrant autocrine signaling of acute myeloid leukemia cells, which has direct implications to overcoming resistance to targeted therapy. We are currently directing efforts to determine the molecular mechanisms of genomic plasticity and adaptation to targeted therapy using functional investigation of human tumors and engineered animal models, with the long-term goal of developing rational combination therapy of high-risk pediatric cancers. Another area of research is continued development of proteomics approaches for the discovery of new diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets, with application to acute inflammatory diseases and tumors: http://urineproteomics.org

About Dr. Kentsis:

Dr. Kentsis received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and New York University and completed a pediatrics residency at the Boston Children's Hospital (BCRP), followed by a fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at Boston Children's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He completed post-doctoral training in proteomics with Hanno Steen and cancer biology with A. Thomas Look. Dr. Kentsis is a member of the American Society of Hematology Trainee Council, and recipient of the Clinical Research Award from the Society for Pediatric Research and the Investigator Award from the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology.
 

Key Publications:

• Kentsis A, Sosnick TR. Trifluoroethanol promotes helix formation by destabilizing backbone exposure: desolvation rather than native hydrogen bonding defines the kinetic pathway of dimeric coiled coil folding. Biochemistry 37(41):14613-14622, 1998.

• Kentsis A, Dwyer EC, Perez JM, Sharma M, Chen A, Pan ZQ, Borden KL. The RING domains of the promyelocytic leukemia protein PML and the arenaviral protein Z repress translation by directly inhibiting translation initiation factor eIF4E. J Mol Biol 312(4):609-623, 2001. 

• Kentsis A, Gordon RE, Borden KL. Control of biochemical reactions through supramolecular RING domain self-assembly. Proc Natl Acad Sci 99(24):15404-15409, 2002. 

• Kentsis A, Topisirovic I, Culjkovic B, Shao L, Borden KL. Ribavirin suppresses eIF4E mediated oncogenic transformation by physical mimicry of the 7-methyl guanosine mRNA cap. Proc Natl Acad Sci 101(52):18105-18110, 2004. 

• Kentsis A, Monigatti F, Dorff K, Campagne F, Bachur R, Steen H. Urine proteomics for profiling of human disease using high accuracy mass spectrometry. Proteomics Clin Appl 3:1052-1061, 2009.

• Kentsis A, Lin YY, Kurek K, Calicchio M, Wang YY, Monigatti F, Campagne F, Lee R, Horwitz B, Steen H, Bachur R. Discovery and validation of urine markers of acute pediatric appendicitis using high accuracy mass spectrometry. Ann Emerg Med 55(1):62-70, 2010. 

• Kentsis A, Reed C, Rice KL, Sanda T, Rodig SJ, Tholouli E, Christie A, Valk PJ, Delwel R, Ngo V, Kutok JL, Dahlberg SE, Moreau LA, Byers RJ, Christensen JG, Vande Woude G, Licht JD, kung AL, Staudt LM, Look AT. Autocrine activation of the MET receptor tyrosine kinase in acute myeloid leukemia. Nature Med in press, 2012.