Identified genetic lesions involved in pathogenesis of human B-cell tumors
Dalla-Favera's research has identified the lesions and the genes involved in the development of human B-cell lymphoma, has determined the mechanism by which these lesions occur, and has elucidated the contribution of each lesion to tumor development.
He determined the role of chromosomal translocations involving the c-myc proto-oncogene locus and immunoglobulin loci in the development of Burkitt lymphoma. These studies include the analysis of the mechanisms regulating the expression of the normal c-myc gene as well as of c-myc alleles structurally altered by chromosomal translocation in lymphoma cells.
Dalla-Favera has studied the normal and pathologic functions of the BCL6 gene, a recently identified proto-oncogene that codes for a transcription factor expressed in B cells, and is altered in its regulatory region in a significant fraction of human lymphoma.
He has identified novel oncogenes and tumor suppressors involved in the pathogenesis of lymphoma by virtue of their involvement in tumor-associated chromosomal translocations, or by "positional cloning" from chromosomal regions involved in tumor-associated deletions.