Christopher Vakoc is a molecular biologist and a professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Vakoc earned a degree in Biochemistry from Pennsylvania State University in 2001, followed by the completion of his M.D. and Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. His doctoral research, conducted with Gerd Blobel, focused on gene expression regulation during hematopoiesis. In 2008, he established his independent research group at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Research in Chris Vakoc’s lab investigates how transcription factors and chromatin regulators cooperate to control gene expression and maintain the cancer cell state. This work makes extensive use of genetic screens to reveal cancer-specific functions for transcriptional regulators, as well as genomic and biochemical approaches to identify molecular mechanisms.

One theme that has emerged from their efforts is that blood cancers are often vulnerable to targeting transcriptional coactivators, such as BRD4 and the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex. Vakoc’s team demonstrated that chemical inhibition of BRD4 exhibits therapeutic effects in mouse models of leukemia, a finding that has motivated ongoing clinical trials in human leukemia patients.

The Vakoc lab has also developed a CRISPR-Cas9 screening approach that can reveal individual protein domains that sustain cancer cells. Their lab is now deploying this technology in diverse human cancers to reveal therapeutic opportunities and basic mechanisms of cancer gene control.