Director, Division of Oncology
Institute Co-Director, Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute
See bio.

Assistant Professor
See bio.

Assistant Professor
Project Manager, Drug Discover
See bio.

Lab Supervisor

I am a laboratory supervisor in the Perentesis Laboratory. I received my master's in biology from North Bengal University and master's in education from University of Calcutta, West Bengal, India. I previously worked as a research specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania. I joined Cincinnati Children's in 1996 and worked on developing VP6, a candidate rotavirus vaccine, and developing new rat models of hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). My current research is focused on understanding the role of arsenic trioxide in targeting zinc finger leukemia’s. I also conduct studies to analyze the blood samples looking for an individual’s pharmacogenetics profile and changes in pharmacodynamic parameters on various phase I and phase II pediatric oncology clinical trials.

Research Assistant II

Research Assistant IV

I received my B.S. in biology at The Ohio State University and completed my MBA at Xavier University. I have studied the role of CDC42, a small GTPase, in the pathogenesis and maintenance of AML. We found that CDC42 regulates AML cell polarity and division symmetry, and inhibiting CDC42 promotes differentiation and blocks leukemia progression.

My work as a researcher in the Perentesis Lab is focused on understanding the molecular etiology and pharmacogenetics of pediatric cancers. We use robotics to conduct high-throughput screening (HTS), screening thousands of drugs against cancerous cells with genetic mutations, to find the needle in the haystack. Our approach is not solely focused on new drug discovery, but also on drug repositioning. Drug repositioning finds a new use for an existing drug. This can take years off the drug approval process, speeding new therapies to patients in need. I’m also working on developing in vitro drug response models to help bridge the bench and the bedside and assisting in the development of the Pediatric Cancer Avatar Program.

Publications

The cell polarity determinant CDC42 controls division symmetry to block leukemia cell differentiation. Mizukawa B, O'Brien E, Moreira DC, Wunderlich M, Hochstetler CL, Duan X, Liu W, Orr E, Grimes HL, Mulloy JC, Zheng Y. Blood. 2017 Sep 14;130(11):1336-1346. doi: 10.1182/blood-2016-12-758458. Epub 2017 Aug 4. PMID:28778865

Protease-activated receptor-1 inhibits proliferation but enhances leukemia stem cell activity in acute myeloid leukemia. Goyama S, Shrestha M, Schibler J, Rosenfeldt L, Miller W, O'Brien E, Mizukawa B, Kitamura T, Palumbo JS, Mulloy JC. Oncogene. 2017 May 4;36(18):2589-2598. doi: 10.1038/onc.2016.416. Epub 2016 Nov 7. PMID:27819671

MLL-Rearranged Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemias Activate BCL-2 through H3K79 Methylation and Are Sensitive to the BCL-2-Specific Antagonist ABT-199. Benito JM, Godfrey L, Kojima K, Hogdal L, Wunderlich M, Geng H, Marzo I, Harutyunyan KG, Golfman L, North P, Kerry J, Ballabio E, Chonghaile TN, Gonzalo O, Qiu Y, Jeremias I, Debose L, O'Brien E, Ma H, Zhou P, Jacamo R, Park E, Coombes KR, Zhang N, Thomas DA, O'Brien S, Kantarjian HM, Leverson JD, Kornblau SM, Andreeff M, Müschen M, Zweidler-McKay PA, Mulloy JC, Letai A, Milne TA, Konopleva M. Cell Rep. 2015 Dec 29;13(12):2715-27. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2015.12.003. Epub 2015 Dec 17. PMID: 26711339

Research Assistant II

Instructor, Division of Biomedical Informatics