James Driscoll, MD, PhD

Clinical Associate Professor
Department of Medicine
School of Medicine
Member
Immune Oncology Program
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

Research Information

Research Interests

The focus of our research is to better understand the biology of plasma cells under physiologic and pathologic conditions as a means to improve human health. Plasma cells represent the terminally differentiated cell population of the B-lymphocyte lineage. Plasma cells possess unique biology, primarily as a result of their role as antibody factories. The unique features associated with the massive antibody production capacity confer upon the plasma cell a vulnerability to attack by specific targeted therapies. Over the past six years, we have worked to develop therapies that exploit the unique features of these cells through plasma cell-targeted therapies. Hence, we have used novel strategies to enhance plasma cell killing to improve MM patient outcomes. Together, our research focuses on three major areas:

  1. Mechanisms of drug resistance in hematologic malignancies
  2. Drug discovery of novel proteasome inhibitors
  3. Single-cell transcriptomic profiling of malignant plasma cells

Publications