Researcher Spotlight: David Russler-Germain, MD, PhD

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is typically a slow-growing disease with high response rates to initial therapy, but disease outcomes vary considerably from patient to patient. Dr. Russler-Germain, therefore, is researching how circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) can be used as a marker to help guide treatment decision-making before therapy even begins. “We hope that our pre-treatment ctDNA profiling can accelerate personalized treatment choices for individual patients, ideally pairing their FL pathobiology with the optimal therapy regimen,” he explains.

Dr. Russler-Germain completed his MD/PhD training at Washington University School of Medicine. He was a hematology/oncology fellow at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri before returning to Washington University as an instructor in the division of oncology. He was drawn to lymphoma research given his family’s personal experiences with lymphoma, and has been excited by the intellectual opportunities of the field and the many unanswered questions that remain. “My overall aspiration as a lymphoma scientist and physician is to confront the diverse areas of uncertainty in this field,” he says. “I hope to design and conduct laboratory experiments, translational studies (such as this project specifically), and clinical trials to answer these questions, reduce the uncertainty that patients face, and improve their outcomes.”

Building on his translational research, Dr. Russler-Germain is looking forward to continuing his career studying FL and other lymphomas, as well as continuing to care for patients within the clinic. He is grateful to the mentors who have helped guide him in his career, and also hopes to continue his involvement with the Lymphoma Research Foundation as a mentor himself in the future.