Daniel Tenen is a leader in gene regulation in both normal differentiation and cancer, with a focus on leukemia, lung cancer, and liver cancer.

Dr. Tenen's laboratory focuses on transcription factors and gene regulation, and their relationship to differentiation. The laboratory has characterized transcription factors which play a role in the differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells into different specific lineages, with particular focus on myeloid (granulocyte and monocyte) differentiation in normal and leukemic cells. The laboratory has isolated and characterized regulatory elements of master transcription factors expressed at different stages of differentiation, including stem and progenitor cells.

Our studies have demonstrated a role for these transcription factors in the regulation of expression of important myeloid genes, and knockout studies demonstrated that they play a major role in hematopoietic development and in hematopoietic stem cell function. In addition, we have identified mutations and specific abnormalities in expression of these factors in specific subtypes of myeloid leukemias.

Part of the current efforts in the laboratory focus on understanding regulation, signal transduction pathways, and interacting partners of these factors, and their role in stem cells in normal hematopoiesis. In addition, a major effort in our laboratory is focused on further characterization of these factors in leukemogenesis, including developing drugs and other therapies specifically aimed at these factors.

A related project in the lab is studying the role of transcription factors in normal lung differentiation, as well as in lung cancer. Recent studies focus on the role of long noncoding RNAs in gene regulation, chromatin structure, and DNA methylation.

Techniques in the laboratory include analysis of regulation, function, and signaling of transcription factors, transgenic and knockout studies, and gene therapy applications.

Biosketch

Daniel G. Tenen, M.D., is head of the Blood Program of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute; Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Distinguished Professor, Department of Medicine, National University of Singapore; and Director, Cancer Science Institute of Singapore. His research efforts have focused on transcription factors, gene regulation, and their role in normal differentiation and cancer. His research contributions have included establishing the role of transcription factors in differentiation of myeloid cells and the role of disruption of these pathways in leukemia and lung cancer. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and received his B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1967. He subsequently moved to Boston, received his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School in 1975. He completed training in Internal Medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Medical Oncology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and his research training as a postdoctoral fellow in David Livingston's laboratory at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He established his own independent laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical School, Harvard Medical School, in 1984, and a second laboratory at the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore in 2008.

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