My clinical duties at the Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago include signing out bone marrow and lymph node pathology reports, and directorship of the clinical hematology laboratory. My research interests are focused on the diagnosis, therapy, and pathogenesis of pediatric hematopoietic malignancies. We have recently identified that CD317 may serve as a marker for B-lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (B-ALL) minimal residual disease detection, and I am looking further into the biological significance of loss of CD317 in leukemic blasts, and potential values in therapy and monitoring of disease progression. Additionally, we are collaborating with several groups to study the functional genomics of pediatric variant of follicular lymphoma, a newly-identified entity with little similarity to its adult counterparts. We have found that some genes encoding key regulatory proteins of multiple signaling pathways, particularly not shared by regular follicular lymphomas, are mutated in pediatric follicular lymphoma. We are interested in investigating how the mutant proteins change the behavior of transformed cells, and whether the knowledge we attain may benefit the laboratory diagnosis and clinical management of this unique type of pediatric lymphoma.