University of South Florida

Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program at the

Pearlie K. Epling-Burnette, Pharm.D, Ph.D. Associate Professor in the Department of Oncologic Sciences Member-in-Residence of the Moffitt Cancer Center, Immunology Program E-mail: pearlie.burnette@moffitt.org Phone: (813)745-6177

Training
Pharm.D., University of Florida, Gainesville, 1989
Clinical Pharmacist, Moffitt Cancer Center, 1990-91
Ph.D., University of South Florida, 1994
Postdoctoral Fellow, Moffitt Cancer Center, 1995-1997
Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine, USF
Assistant Professor, DIO, 1999-2006
Associate Professor, DIO, 2006-2008
Associate Professor, DOS, 2008-Present

Research Interests
The goal of Dr. Epling-Burnette’s laboratory is to perform translational research related to bone marrow failure. Bone marrow failure diseases often develop initially as ineffective blood cell development in the setting on an abnormally aggressive immune response. It is thought that these bone marrow failure syndromes progress to acute leukemia as a result of this constant deleterious immune microenvironment. We found that specific signaling pathways are important for the survival of autoreactive immune T cells. Specifically, the Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway linked to Ras, a commonly mutated oncogene related to cancer development, was found to be important for the chronic survival of these cells. Through a multi-centered national cooperative group focusing on the study of bone marrow failure and through animal models, the goal is to develop targeted pharmacologic intervention, improve epidemiologic studies, and develop novel clinical treatment to better understand the process of chronic bone marrow failure and autoimmunity by T cells and Natural Killer (NK) cells.

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This search will be conducted at the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) and PubMed.

Selected Publications

1. Epling-Burnette PK*, Lubomir S*, Xianhong C, Fanqi B, Junmin Z, Blaskovich MA, JianXiang Z, Painter JS, Edwards DT, Moscinski L, Yoder JA, Djeu JY, Sebti S, Loughran TP and Wei S. Clinical Improvement by Farnesyltransferase Inhibition in NK Large Granular Lymphocyte Leukemia Associated with Imbalanced NK Receptor Signaling. Blood. 112(12):4694-8, 2008.*share equal authorship.

2. Chen X, Bai F, Sokol L, Zhou J, Ren A, Painter JS, Liu J, Sallman D, Chen Y, JA Yoder, JY Djeu,TP Loughran, Jr.* and Epling-Burnette, PK*, and S Wei*.A critical role for DAP10 and DAP12 in CD8+ T cell-mediated tissue damage in Large Granular Lymphocyte Leukemia. Blood, ahead of press. 2008.*share equal authorship as senior authors.

3. JianXiang Z, DE Rollison, D Boulware, D-T Chen, EM Sloand, LV Pfannes, J. J. Goronzy, F Bai, J S Painter, S Wei, D Cosgrove, A F List, and PK Epling- Burnette. Altered naïve and memory CD4+ T-cell homeostasis and immunosenescence characterize younger patients with myelodysplastic Syndrome Leukemia, in press.

4. Epling-Burnette PK and A F List. Advancements in the Molecular Pathogenesis Of Myelodysplastic Syndrome. Current Opinion in Hematology, in press.

5. Sheng Wei, X Chen, K Rocha, A Williams, PK Epling-Burnette, JY Djeu, Q Liu, J Byrd, L Sokol, N Lawrence, R Pireddu, G Dewald, J Maciejewski, and A List. A critical role of phosphatase haplodeficiency in selective suppression of deletion 5q MDS by lenalidomide. PNAS, March 2009, ahead of print.