What's New? 

10/2020 – Lab member Ashni Vora presented our latest research in multiple myeloma at the annual (virtual, this year) Moores Cancer Center scientific retreat! The poster sessions had a rapid fire format of brief oral presentations (3 minutes max!) and Ashni did a fantastic job presenting the results of this research clearly and quickly.

10/2020 – The Crews Lab welcomes new member, Anna Rapp! Anna is a lab volunteer and undergraduate student at UC San Diego.

9/2020 – The Crews Lab welcomes new member, Lara Avsharian! Lara is a masters student at Cal Poly SLO and a CIRM intern carrying out research in cancer stem cell biology in our lab at UC San Diego.

8/2020 – A huge congratulations to Crews Lab member Ashni Vora and Jamieson Lab member Phoebe Mondala for their beautiful new pre-clinical work in our myeloma models! The preprint of this tour de force team effort between the Crews Lab, Jamieson Lab, and our collaborators @ Ionis Pharmaceuticals is out now in Cell Press SneakPeek 2.0, available @ SSRN (free to access, but login required). Stay tuned for more updates on this cutting-edge translational work!

4/2020 – "Strategic Recruits put MCC on the National Map in Myeloma Science" – We're honored to have the Crews Lab's research highlighted in the April 2020 Moores Cancer Center newsletter along with our new MCC colleague Fotis Asimakopoulos. Fotis was also recently recruited to UC San Diego to further expand the translational research efforts in multiple myeloma at the Cancer Center.

4/2020 – The Crews Lab has minimized laboratory activity due to COVID-19 but we're staying upbeat and up to date with virtual lab meetings. Stay safe, everyone!

4/2020 – The Crews Lab welcomes new member, Kseniya Malukhina! Kseniya is a masters student and lab volunteer studying Bioengineering at UC San Diego.

2/2020 – Several of the Crews Lab members attended the Industry/Academia Next Generation Precision Oncology Symposium. It was another great opportunity to present our latest work in the poster session and network with other Cancer Center investigators and local industry scientists.

12/2019 – The Crews Lab welcomes new member, Ethan Harding! Ethan is an undergraduate student volunteer studying General Biology at UC San Diego.

11/2019 – Leslie represented the Crews Lab at the Annual Padres Pedal the Cause event to raise funds for cancer research in San Diego. As a member of the Leukemia Stem Cell Cyclers Team with the Jamieson Lab, together they raised several thousand dollars that will go back to funding research at Moores and other San Diego Cancer Centers! Go team, beat cancer!

10/2019 – It was great to hear about so much exciting new research at the 2019 Moores Cancer Center Delivering Discoveries Scientific Retreat! We also got to present some of our latest research targeting inflammation-responsive pathways in multiple myeloma. Great work Ashni and Phoebe (Jamieson Lab) on a fantastic poster presentation!

10/2019 – We had a great turnout for our annual Multiple Myeloma Patient Advocacy Meeting at the Moores Cancer Center, featuring speakers Fotis Asimakopoulos (Faculty, UC San Diego BMT Division) and Matthew Spear (Chief Medical Officer, Poseida Therapeutics). Leslie chaired the symposium and several lab members volunteered at the event. We enjoyed hearing about new research and clinical developments in the pipeline for myeloma patients.

9/2019 – Leslie traveled to Sacramento to present our latest translational research in multiple myeloma at the Fourth Annual UCHMC Research Symposium. It was a great day full of clinical and research talks by outstanding investigators across the UC system. We were honored to have the opportunity to share our work and network with other UC scientists and clinicians!

6/2019 – Thrilled to have had the opportunity to present some of our lab's latest research at ISSCR 2019! Dr. Crews presented our exciting new work on liver regeneration in the Engineering Tissues and Organs Session.

6/2019 – Congratulations to lab members Ashni Vora, Sruti Malay and Kylie Paul on graduating from UC San Diego, class of 2019! We celebrated with a lab lunch, San Diego style (tacos!).

6/2019 – Congratulations to Crews lab member Kylie Paul for completing her BISP196 Honors Thesis, including a poster presentation at the Biology Research Showcase and a formal thesis paper!

4/2019 – Congratulations to Crews lab member Ashni Vora on completing her final quarter of classes at UC San Diego! We are excited to have her staying in the lab full-time after graduation.

3/25/2019 – Dr. Crews presented some of the lab's latest research at the UC San Diego Orthopaedic Surgery/Rheumatology Research Conference.

3/15/2019 – Dr. Crews was honored to have the opportunity to co-organize the inaugural Poster Awards Competition at the Annual Division of Regenerative Medicine Symposium. Congratulations to all of the outstanding poster submissions and awardees!

12/1/2018 – Dr. Crews and Phoebe Mondala (Jamieson Lab) presented our abstract, entitled "Genetic Modulation of Adenosine-to-Inosine RNA Editing Selectively Disrupts Inflammasome and Extracellular Matrix Genes in Multiple Myeloma" at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting 2018 in San Diego, CA.

11/3/2018 – The Crews Lab partnered up with the San Diego Multiple Myeloma Support Group to participate in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Annual Light the Night Fundraiser here in San Diego. What a heart-warming experience to see all the support in the community for those whose lives have been affected by blood cancer!

9/24/2018 – Welcome to the lab, Kylie Paul!

7/1/2018 – Welcome to our new students! We are excited to have 2 students joining us in the lab for the summer.

6/1/2018 – Welcome to the lab, Sruti Malay!

5/30/2018 – Ashni Vora presented her poster at the Faculty Mentor Program Annual Symposium. Congratulations on a job well done, Ashni!

5/5/2018 – Dr. Crews and Ashni Vora attended UCSD's Undergraduate Research Conference where Ashni gave an oral presentation about her work and Dr. Crews served as a Faculty Moderator for the Panel on Molecular Biology and Regulation.

4/14/2018 – Phoebe Mondala (Jamieson Lab) presented our abstract, entitled "Down-modulation of ADAR1-mediated GLI1 editing alters extracellular and immune response genes in multiple myeloma at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018 in Chicago, IL.

4/1/2018 – The Crews Lab was awarded a pilot project grant through the UCSD Clinical and Translational and Research Institute (CTRI). The goal of this study is to elucidate the inflammation-responsive molecular mechanisms that promote malignant stem cell generation in multiple myeloma. To read more about the study, visit the 2018 ACTRI Pilot Project Recipients page.

3/9/2018 – The Crews Lab was excited to pariticipate in Sanford Consortium's Annual Division of Regenerative Medicine Symposium.

3/2/2018 – Dr. Crews was invited to speak at the Moores Cancer Center Hematology Retreat where she presented her talk, titled: "Inflammation-response pathways promote malignant regeneration in multiple myeloma".

2/22/2018 – Dr. Crews presented a poster, entitled "Down-modulation of ADAR1-mediated GLI1 editing alters extracellular and immune response genes in multiple myeloma" at the Translational Oncology Symposium at Moores Cancer Center.

2/20/2018 – Dr. Crews presented her research at the Inaugural Seminar of the Division of Regenerative Medicine Seminar Series (held at the Moores Cancer Center, Comer Commons at 9:30 a.m.).

1/26/2018 – Dr. Crews was invited to participate in the UCSD-NCLAM leadership training program. The National Center of Leadership in Academic Medicine, or NCLAM, is a professional development program aimed to help junior faculty to attain skills necessary for their career in the Health Sciences Departments.

12/12/2017 – We successfully presented our poster, entitled "ADAR1-Mediated GLI1 Editing Promotes Malignant Self-Renewal in Multiple Myeloma" at ASH (American Society of Hematology) 2017 in Atlanta, GA! There were many excellent presentations and it's so exciting to hear about more new myeloma therapies on the horizon.

12/4/2017 – The Crews Lab is excited to announce the publication of a key new paper in multiple myeloma, out in Nature Communications. The team has worked diligently to develop new patient-derived models for multiple myeloma research and to identify molecular mechanisms of disease progression and drug resistance. See the UCSD press release here.

12/1/2017 – The Crews Lab will be working with Dr. Catriona Jamieson's lab along with biochemist Dr. Michael Burkart, also at UCSD, on a project that was just selected to receive $2.7M in funding from CIRM to test a new potential therapy for AML. Congrats to the Jamieson and Burkart teams!

11/4/2017 – The Crews Lab partnered with the San Diego Multiple Myeloma Patient Support Group to participate in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Annual Light the Night event to show support for research on blood cancer to save lives.

Video Feature – Dr. Crews was featured on the homepage of The Science Network, speaking at the Annual Division of Regenerative Medicine symposium earlier this year about her work in multiple myeloma.

***Student Research Opportunities Available Contact the Crews Lab for more information.***

10/9/2017 – We were delighted to host the Annual Multiple Myeloma Patient Support Group Symposium at the Moores Cancer Center! Thank you to all who participated and attended, especially speakers Dr. Aaron Goodman and Christine Zoumas.

9/21/2017 – Dr. Crews presented some of the lab's recent work at the Moores Cancer Center Fellows Networking meeting, 4pm @ Comer Commons

9/8/2017 – Attended the 29th Annual Usha Mahajani Symposium on Molecular Medicine - many fantastic presentations on cancer heterogeneity and therapy resistance!

8/18/2017 – Attended the Annual International Myeloma Foundation Patient and Family Seminar. So inspired and motivated after hearing the needs and challenges that multiple myeloma patients face today. I'm taking new ideas back to the lab with a mission to cure!