Katherine Antel, M.D., Ph.D.

I am an Associate Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina and a physician-scientist (MD/PhD) with a research focus on B-cell lymphomas in the setting of immune suppression. My research focuses on characterizing molecular substructure and pathogenesis of HIV and EBV-associated Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) and developing molecular assays using cell-free DNA for for lymphoma detection and subtyping. I have secured research funding through an NIH K-grant, as well as grants from the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR). My research is driven by the potential to benefit patients, and my most significant achievement is reducing diagnostic delays in lymphoma in an HIV-endemic setting (Leuk Lymphoma, 2020). Recognizing the adverse impact of delayed lymphoma diagnosis on outcomes, my early publications elucidate delays in lymphoma diagnosis in South Africa and propose interventions to aid earlier diagnosis. This work has led to the establishment of a rapid-access lymph node biopsy clinic utilizing molecular techniques, changing clinical diagnostic approaches in Cape Town, SA (published in BMC Cancer (2019), BMC Infectious Diseases (2020), and AIDS (2023)). The algorithmic approach to lymphadenopathy in an HIV-endemic setting is now being piloted nationally and internationally (Malawi). I continue to enhance accurate and timely lymphoma diagnosis and have developed an integrated cell-free DNA (liquid biopsy) panel detecting recurrent genomic aberrations, common pathogens, and clonotype analysis through T-cell and B-cell receptor profiling to diagnose lymphoma from the peripheral blood. A related focus of my research has been to accurately characterize HIV lymphoma, first with existing immunohistochemistry methods (Pathology (2020), Pathology (2021), and Annals of Hematology (2020)), and more recently characterizing the genomic and transcriptomic landscape of HIV-associated DLBLC with whole-exome and whole-transcriptome sequencing. Building on this hypothesis-generating genomic landscape work, my current research aims to define molecular mechanisms contributing to HIV and EBV-associated lymphoma, including defining the association of NOTCH1 gain-of-function mutations in EBV-associated DLBCL and mutations in the PI3K/RAS/RAF pathways in HIV-associated DLBCL.