Instructor
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
I am Yoshinobu Konishi, MD, PhD, an Instructor in Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. My Area of Excellence is Investigation working in the Division of Hematologic Neoplasia, in the Department of Medical Oncology.
Originally trained as a hematologist, my entire scientific career has been devoted to studying cell-cell interactions within the tumor microenvironment. I graduated from Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine, one of the best medical schools in Japan and worked as a hematologist for 5 years. After clinical training, I started my scientific career in the laboratory of Dr. Michiyuki Matsuda at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine. I have over 8 years of laboratory experience with a strong set of wet lab skills in cellular and molecular biology, and skills in image data processing with an extensive medical hematology background. I'm currently working as an instructor in the Ghobrial lab. The lab focuses on identifying mechanisms of multiple myeloma (MM) progression, those that are cell autonomous or those dependent on the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment. My overarching hypothesis is that spatially mapping the bone marrow microenvironment will provide a better understanding of disease pathophysiology and allow us to more accurately identify patients who may benefit from early therapeutic intervention to prevent disease progression and improve survival. By gaining the spatial view of immune cell function in disease progression, I want to clarify how the immune system is working to support or fight against myeloma cells. My previous experience as a doctor seeing patients with hematological malignancies motivates me to commit myself to this research field.