Researcher

Title

• Assistant professor under contract, Department of Pediatrics, Université de Montreal (2019)

Laboratory

Cancer genomics and single cell heterogeneity 

• Postdoctoral studies, computational and systems biology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NYC, USA, 2017-2019
• PhD, molecular and systems biology, Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC), Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada, 2012-2020 (2022).
• Hematology specialty, Université de Montréal, 2010-2012
• Internal medicine specialty, Université de Montréal, 2007-2010
• Medicine degree, Université de Montréal, 2002-2007

Dr Lavallée research focuses on :

• The study of cellular heterogeneity in pediatric cancers, including in acute leukemias, and of cancer development, progression and vulnerabilities;
• The characterization of mutations that predispose to leukemias in Québec population, their functional impact and cooperative events that lead to progression to overt cancer;
• The hemostatic abnormalities in acute promyelocytic leukemias, particularly the cell-type specific transcriptional bases underlying these complications.

• Acute leukemias
• Cancer predisposition
• Single-cell Omics
• Cancer genetics and epigenomics
• Systems biology
• Computational biology

Career Summary

Vincent-Philippe Lavallée is a clinician scientist who obtained his medical degree at Université de Montréal (2005) where he subsequently completed a training in internal medicine (2010) and hematology (2012). He then joined the laboratory of Dr. Guy Sauvageau for a PhD training in molecular biology and systems biology at the same institution where his work focused on the transcriptomic analysis of different subgroups of acute myeloid leukemias aiming at the identification of new biological determinants, prognosis markers and potential therapeutic targets. He next pursued a training in computational biology and systems biology in the laboratory of Dr. Dana Pe’er at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer, NYC, where he employed state of the art single-cell sequencing technologies to interrogate gene expression profile (RNA-seq) and chromatin accessibility (ATAC-seq) in preleukemic and leukemic cells aiming to better understand cell type specific regulatory mechanisms. During his postgraduate medical training, Dr. Lavallée obtained a prestigious Vanier Canada graduate scholarship and his work resulted in several publications in high-impact journals.

Dr. Lavallée joined the hemato-oncology group at CHU Sainte-Justine in 2020 and his clinical interests are 1) acute leukemias, 2) leukemia predisposition syndromes and 3) molecular diagnostic in pediatric oncology.

Awards and Distinctions

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Presentation prize (2018)
• American Society of Hematology, Abstract achievement awards (2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013)
• Fondation Cole. Presentation prize (2018, 2016, 2015)
• Fonds de recherche du Québec en Santé. All-star researcher / Étudiant chercheur étoile (2016)
• European Hematology society. Travel award (2014-2016)

Major Financing

• Cole Foundation Transition Award
• Genome Canada LSARP
• Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship
• Cole Foundation Fellowship Grant 

Presentations

• Single-cell expression and chromatin accessibility of pre-leukemia and leukemia cells. Single-Cell Genomics Meeting, Stockholm 2019.
• Single-cell RNA-sequencing mapping of primary acute myeloid leukemias and profiling of NPM1-mutated cells. Single-Cell Genomics Meeting, Broad Institute, Boston, 2018.
• Podoplanin Expression in the Bleeding Complications of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemias. American Society of Hematology, Atlanta, 2017.
• Chemo-transcriptomic analysis of complex karyotype AML reveals increased expression of cell cycle components and exquisite dependency on polo-like kinase. American Society of Hematology, San Diego, 2016.
• Chemo-genomic interrogation of primary acute myeloid leukemia with biallelic CEBPA mutation reveals recurrent CSF3R mutations and subgroup sensitivity to JAK inhibitors European Hematology Society, Copenhague, 2016.

Publications

1. Laughney AM, Hu J, Campbell NR, Bakhoum SF, Setty M, Lavallée VP, Xie Y, Masilionis I, Carr AJ, Kottapalli S, Allaj V, Mattar M, Rekhtman N, Xavier JB, Mazutis L, Poirier JT, Rudin CM, Pe'er D, Massagué J. Regenerative lineages and immune-mediated pruning in lung cancer metastasis. Nat Med. 2020 Feb;26(2):259-269. 
2. Viny AD, Bowman RL, Liu Y, Lavallée VP, Eisman SE, Xiao W, Durham BH, Navitski A, Park J, Braunstein S, Alija B, Karzai A, Csete IS, Witkin M, Azizi E, Baslan T, Ott CJ, Pe'er D, Dekker J, Koche R, Levine RL. Cohesin Members Stag1 and Stag2 Display Distinct Roles in Chromatin Accessibility and Topological Control of HSC Self-Renewal and Differentiation. Cell Stem Cell. 2019 Nov 7;25(5):682-696.e8.
3. Brown CC, Gudjonson H, Pritykin Y, Deep D, Lavallée VP, Mendoza A, Fromme R, Mazutis L, Ariyan C, Leslie C, Pe'er D, Rudensky AY.Transcriptional Basis of Mouse and Human Dendritic Cell Heterogeneity. Cell. 2019 Oct 31;179(4):846-863.e24. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.09.035. Epub 2019 Oct 24.
4. Moison C,* Lavallée VP*, Thiollier C*, Lehnertz B, Boivin I, Mayotte N, Gareau Y, Fréchette M, Blouin-Chagnon V, Corneau S, Lavallée S, Lemieux S, Marinier A, Hébert J, Sauvageau G. Complex karyotype AML displays G2/M signature and hypersensitivity to PLK1 inhibition. Blood Adv. 2019 Feb 26;3(4):552-563. 
5. Lavallée VP, Chagraoui J, MacRae T, Marquis M, Bonnefoy A, Krosl J, Lemieux S, Marinier A, Pabst C, Rivard GÉ, Hébert J, Sauvageau G. Transcriptomic landscape of acute promyelocytic leukemia reveals aberrant surface expression of the platelet aggregation agonist Podoplanin. Leukemia. 2018 Jun;32(6):1349-1357.
6. Lavallée VP, Krosl J, Lemieux S, Boucher G, Gendron P, Pabst C, Boivin I, Marinier A, Guidos CJ, Meloche S, Hébert J, Sauvageau G.Chemo-genomic interrogation of CEBPA mutated AML reveals recurrent CSF3R mutations and subgroup sensitivity to JAK inhibitors.Blood. 2016 Jun 16;127(24):3054-61. 
7. Lavallée VP, Lemieux S, Boucher G, Gendron P, Boivin I, Armstrong RN, Sauvageau G, Hébert J. RNA-sequencing analysis of core binding factor AML identifies recurrent ZBTB7A mutations and defines RUNX1-CBFA2T3 fusion signature. Blood. 2016 May 19;127(20):2498-501.
8. Lavallée VP, Lemieux S, Boucher G, Gendron P, Boivin I, Girard S, Hébert J, Sauvageau G. Identification of MYC mutations in acute myeloid leukemias with NUP98-NSD1 translocations. Leukemia. 2016 Jul;30(7):1621-4. 
9. Lavallée VP, Baccelli I, Krosl J, Wilhelm B, Barabé F, Gendron P, Boucher G, Lemieux S, Marinier A, Meloche S, Hébert J, Sauvageau G.The transcriptomic landscape and directed chemical interrogation of MLL-rearranged acute myeloid leukemias. Nat Genet. 2015 Sep;47(9):1030-7. doi: 10.1038/ng.3371. Epub 2015 Aug 3. PubMed PMID: 26237430
10. Lavallée VP, Gendron P, Lemieux S, D'Angelo G, Hébert J, Sauvageau G. EVI1-rearranged acute myeloid leukemias are characterized by distinct molecular alterations. Blood. 2015 Jan 1;125(1):140-3.