André Deslauriers is a research scholar at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics under the supervision of Dr. Elli Papaemmanouil. He is interested in functionally characterizing the role of sequentially acquired mutations in myeloid neoplasms. Using significant patterns of co-mutations with the SF3B1 splicing factor, identified from the Dr. Papaemmanouil’s profiling of large (>1000) cohorts of MDS patients, he aims to unite inter-disciplinary expertise to address some of the challenges associated with current methods used for modeling of the disease. In collaboration with Dr. Papapetrou from Mt. Sinai, André is using pre-identified primary samples with sub-clonal patterns of mutations to generate patient tailored induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSCs) lines. By isolating and generating iPSC lines from cells of the major clone, cells of the minor clone and residual un-mutated cells all from within the same patient, this will allow for extensive experimentation into the biology and downstream consequences of sequential mutation acquisition in MDS. In parallel, he is using highly purified and fully clonal samples to generate differential expression and de-novo transcript discovery analysis using established bioinformatics methods in the lab. He has obtained his bachelor’s from the University of Montréal and his Master’s degree from the University of Copenhagen under the supervision of Dr. Kim Theilgaard-Mönch. During his thesis, he worked on defining personalized treatments for AML patients with the t(8;21) translocation, using microarray expression profiles and defined over-active signaling pathways. Overall motivated individual, André is a great addition to the team, allowing us to better understand the pathophysiology of MDS and the downstream consequences associated with single and compound mutations, which will inform future translational research.