Dr. Fred Alt

Biography

Fred Alt is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital. His research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms that generate antigen receptor diversity and how the immune system maintains genomic stability in mammalian cells. Over the past decade, he has developed remarkably sensitive high-throughput approaches to elucidate the translocations of DNA breaks at genome-wide nucleotide resolution, moving studies of chromosomal translocations, deletions, and amplifications into the post-genomics era. He has further advanced techniques to develop powerful V(D)J recombination and immunoglobulin heavy chain class switch recombination assays, which have led to a depth of understanding regarding the mechanistic aspects of these processes in B lymphocyte lineage cells. His studies have provided new insights into off-target activities associated with antigen receptor locus gene rearrangement processes in B and T lineage cells, resulting in oncogenic genomic rearrangements in lymphoid cancers. Additionally, Alt's lab employs novel methods to discover genes that are recurrently broken in neuronal stem progenitor cells, potentially offering new insights into the cellular diversity of the brain and the mechanistic factors that contribute to neuropsychiatric diseases and brain cancer.

Research Interests