Postdoctoral Fellow

Tatiani Brenelli de Lima

Profile

I earned both a Master’s and a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Science from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP, São Paulo, Brazil), where I specialized in proteomics, structural proteomics, and mass spectrometry. Following this, I completed a postdoc at Goethe University Frankfurt, where I developed expertise in applying clinical proteomics to investigate oncogenic signaling in blood cancer. Afterwards, I worked as a Specialist at the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM) and taught at a technical school . Currently, I work at the proteomics facility, and my research centers on personalized medicine and blood cancer, aiming to unravel oncogenic signaling through clinical proteomics integrated with other omics and clinical data.

Project description

Decoding the proteogenomic landscape in B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (B-ALL)

B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (B-ALL) is the most prevalent malignancy among children and a rare form of leukemia in adults. This type of leukemia is a genetically heterogeneous disease categorized into up to 23 different subtypes based on specific structural variations and mutations identified by chromosomal and genetic analysis in conjunction with gene expression studies, which can influence phenotype, prognosis, and response to treatment. Accurate subtype assignment can improve current risk assessment methods, and molecular classification is being used to identify patients at higher risk of relapse. Recent advances in molecular biology and bioinformatics have enabled more detailed genomic analysis and a better understanding of the molecular biology of ALL, suggesting that multiple factors play an important role in the development of B-ALL. Despite
significant advances in genomics, 20-25% of patients are still diagnosed as B-other, or non-classified in any molecular subgroup, comprehensive understanding of the proteomic alterations and their functional implications in B-ALL remains limited. Proteins are key players in various cellular processes and play an essential role in linking genotype to phenotype. Abnormalities in protein expression and post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation, are closely related to cancer initiation and development, and contain biological information inaccessible to genomics and transcriptomics. Proteomics complements genomic and transcriptomic data, enabling comprehensive analysis of cancer pathogenesis and accelerating biomedical research. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying B-ALL, we propose to use state-of-the-art high-throughput technologies to perform multi-omics analyzes (genomics, transcriptomics, and in-depth quantitative proteomics and phosphoproteomics) on two cohorts of ALL patients, one consisting of pediatric and the other of adult patients (75 samples each). Proteomic and phosphoproteomic technologies may lead to the identification of vulnerabilities that might result in the development of novel therapeutic approaches. This project aims to bridge this knowledge gap by integrating genomic and proteomic data to unravel the complex molecular mechanisms driving BALL pathogenesis and identify potential therapeutic targets, under the umbrella of the “The Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC)”, which is coordinated effort to accelerate the understanding of the molecular basis of cancer through the application of robust, quantitative, proteomic technologies and workflows.

Free keywords: B-ALL, proteomics, phosphoproteomics, proteogenomics and multi-omics integration