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Dr. Deel is a clinician scientist in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the Duke Cancer Institute. He specializes in caring for pediatric patients with hematologic disorders and malignancies. His research is focused on finding novel ways to target fusion-positive pediatric sarcomas, particularly understanding the gene regulation and molecular pathways responsible for alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, which remains difficult to cure in pediatric populations. Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma is driven by chromosomal translocations t(2;13) and t(1;13) that result in oncogenic transcription factors encoding PAX3/7-FOXO1 fusion proteins. These PAX3/7-FOXO1 oncogenes are currently viable therapeutic targets. Using a variety of cell culture and murine models, Dr. Deel is investigating the genes and pathways that regulate the coordinated PAX3/7-FOXO1-mediated tumorigenesis.
Department of Biomedical Engineering (MS program)