Linda M. McAllister-Lucas, MD, PhD
Photo: Linda M. McAllister-Lucas

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Elected 2014

Dr. McAllister-Lucas is a pediatric oncologist physician-scientist. She graduated from the Medical Scientist Training Program at Vanderbilt University and completed training at the University of Michigan, where she remained as faculty. In 2012, she was recruited to University of Pittsburgh to become Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. Dr. McAllister-Lucas jointly directs a laboratory with her husband, Dr. Peter Lucas, also a physician-scientist and ASCI member. Dr. McAllister-Lucas’s research focuses on the role of a multiprotein complex, the CARMA-Bcl10-MALT1 (CBM) signalosome, in malignant and inflammatory disease. Early studies by her group revealed that this complex plays a critical role in adaptive immunity by mediating antigen receptor–dependent stimulation of NF-κB in lymphocytes. These findings formed the basis of a body of subsequent work by multiple laboratories, including her own, leading to our understanding that deregulation of the CBM complex leads to B cell lymphoma. Her lab made seminal observations regarding the mechanism by which API2-MALT1, a fusion oncoprotein created by recurrent chromosomal translocation in MALT lymphoma, promotes tumorigenesis. Most notably, they discovered that API2-MALT1 possesses proteolytic activity that drives lymphomagenesis by cleaving and activating NF-κB–inducing kinase (NIK). Her laboratory also discovered that the CBM signalosome functions outside of lymphocytes by operating downstream of specific G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs). They demonstrated that the CBM complex contributes to vascular inflammatory disease driven by the inappropriate stimulation of two GPCRs, angiotensin type 1 receptor and PAR1 thrombin receptor. Her group is now evaluating inhibition of the CBM complex as a new approach to treating specific malignant and inflammatory disorders.