Faculty

photo of Cheryl Willman

Cheryl L. Willman, M.D.

Professor

The Maurice and Marguerite Liberman Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research

Director & CEO, University of New Mexico Cancer Center



Interests:

Leukemia, Solid Tumor Oncology and Hematopathology

Big questions:

  • What are the molecular alterations that lead to leukemia?
  • How will DNA arrays and proteomics improve our understanding of leukemogenesis?

Model systems:

  • Human leukemia (POG, SWOG tissue banks)

Methodology:

  • Gene arrays
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genomics and Genetics of Acute Leukemia; Genomics for Molecular Classification, Risk Assesment, and Target Identification
  • Molecular Hematology: Molecular and Cellular Biology of Normal and Leukemic Myeloid Cells

Education and Certification Information

Fellowship:
UNM School of Medicine (Jul 1985)
Specialty in Pathology

Internship AND Residency Combined:
UNM School of Medicine (Jul 1984)
Specialty in Anatomical & Clinical Pathology

Medical School:
Mayo Medical School (Jul 1981)

Board Certifications:
Am Bd Pathology (Sub: Anatomical) : (Jan 1986)

Specialties:
Pathology


Selected Publications:

  • Maloney KW, Carroll WL, Carroll AJ, Devidas M, Borowitz MJ, Martin PL, Pullen J, Whitlock JA, Willman CL, Winick NJ, Camitta BM, and Hunger SP. 2009. Down Syndrome childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia has a unique spectrum of sentinel cytogenetic lesions that influences treatment outcome: A report from the Children’s Oncology Group. Blood. 2010. Aug 19. 116(7): 1045-1050. May 4, Epub ahead of print. PMID:20442364.

  • Wiggins CL, Harlan LC, Nelson HE, Stevens JL, Willman CL, Libby EN, and Hromas, RA. Age disparity in the dissemination of Imatinib for treating chronic myeloid leukemia.  2010. Am J Med. Aug 123(8): 764.e1-9. PMID: 20670732.

  • Harvey RC, Wang X, Dobbin KK, Davidson GS, Bedrick EJ, Chen IM, Atlas SR, Kang H, K Ar, Wilson CS,  Wharton W, Murphy M, Devidas M, Carroll AJ, Borowitz MJ, Bowman WP, Mullighan CG, Downing JR, Yang JJ, Carroll WL, Camitta B, Reaman GH, Smith M, Hunger SP, and Willman CL.  Identification of novel cluster groups in pediatric high risk B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia by gene expression profiling: Correlation with genome-wide DNA copy number alterations, clinical characteristics, and outcome.  Blood. 2010 Dec. 2; 116(23):4874-64. Epub ahead of print: Aug, 10, 2010.

  • Commentary on this Work: Kulozik, A.E.  Taking Childhood Leukemia Personally.  Blood.  December 2, 2010. 116(23):4737-8.

  • Dreyer Z, Dinndorf PA, Camitta B, Sather H, La M, Devidas M, Hilden JM, Heerema, NA, Sanders J, McGlennen R, Willman CL, Carroll A, Behm F, Smith FO, Woods WG, Godder K, Reaman GH.  Analysis of the role of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in infants with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in first remission and MLL gene rearrangements: A report from the Children’s Oncology Group.  J Clinical Oncology. 2010 Dec 6. [Epub ahead of print].

  • Powell BL, Moser B, Stock W,  Gallagher RE, Willman CL, Stone RM, Rowe JM, Coutre S, Feusner JH, Gregory J, Couban S, Appelbaum FR, Tallman MS, and Larson RA.  Arsenic Trioxide Improves Event-free and Overall Survival for Adults with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia: North American Leukemia Intergroup Study C9710. 2010. Blood Nov. 11; 116(19):3751-7. PMID: 20705755.

  • Tallman, MS, Kim HK, Montesinos P, Appelbaum FR, de la Serna F, Bennett JM, Deben G, Bloomfield CD, Gonzalez J, Feusner JH, Gonzalez M, Larson RA, Gonzalez-San Miguel JD, Ogden A, Milone G, Rowe JM, Rayon C,  Shepherd L, Rivas C, Schiffer CA, Vellenga E, Wiernik PH, Willman CL, and Sanz MA.  Does microgranular variant morphology of acute promyelocytic leukemia independently predict for a less favorable outcome compared with classical M3 APL?  A joint study of The North American Intergroup and The PETHEMA Group.  Blood 2010 Dec 16; 116(25):5650-0. Epub 2010 Sept 21. PMID: 20858857.

  • Yang JJ, Cheng C, Devidas M, Cao X, Yang W, Campana D, Fan Y, Neale G, Cox N, Scheet M, Borowitz MJ, Winick NJ,  Martin PL, Willman CL, Bowman WP, Reaman GH, Carroll WL, Loh M, Hunger SP, Pui CH, Evans WE, and  Relling MV. Ancestry and pharmacogenomics of relapse in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. 2011. Nature Genetics, in press.

  • Ashley CE, Carnes CE, Phillips GK, Padilla D, Brown PA, Hanna TN, Liu J, Comyford B, Carroll N, Jiang X, Spielman I, Willman CL, Petsev DN, Evans DG, Chackerian B, Wharton W, Peabody DS, and Brinker CJ.  Protocells – a universal nanocarrier for targeted delivery of multicomponent cargoes to cancer.  Nature Materials. 2011, in press.