Predicting Leukemia Risk At Scale: Dr. Lachelle Weeks on The Long Run

Dr. Lachelle Weeks is today’s guest on The Long Run.

Lachelle is a physician-scientist in the adult leukemia program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. She treats patients who have precursors to myeloid cancers such as acute myeloid leukemia.

Dr. Lachelle Weeks, physician-scientist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Her research is looking at ways to detect the early warning signs of blood cancer early, when these malignancies are most treatable.

I first became aware of Dr. Weeks when she was awarded a Damon Runyon-Timmerman Traverse Clinical Investigator grant. She is one of the first three young scientists who received biotech community support through the Timmerman Traverse for Damon Runyon team that climbed Kilimanjaro and raised $1.2 million in 2024.

Dr. Weeks’ project is focused on using computers to identify small changes to the shape and appearance of blood cells and using that data to predict an individual’s risk of developing cancer later in life.

This is a fascinating potential use case for predictive and preventive medicine, enabled in part by the confluence of widely available blood samples, powerful computing, AI analytics, and the vision and persistence of Dr. Weeks and her colleagues.

Dr. Weeks also happens to be African-American, and of course she’s well aware that people in this group suffer from blood cancers at a disproportionate rate. If her project is successful, it theoretically could make screening for common blood cancers inexpensive and widely available for people from all racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Please join me for this conversation on The Long Run.