Ross Bhatt

Ross Bhatt has contributed to understanding and treating hairy cell leukemia, a rare B-cell malignancy exquisitely sensitive to purine nucleoside analogs including cladribine and pentostatin. His research has investigated BRAF V600E as a near-universal driver mutation in classic hairy cell leukemia, confirming it as both a diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for patients with relapsed or refractory disease. He has studied the efficacy and durability of cladribine treatment with and without concurrent rituximab, and explored measurable residual disease monitoring by sensitive molecular assays to predict relapse. His work on BRAF inhibitor therapy with vemurafenib for relapsed or refractory HCL and recombinant immunotoxin moxetumomab pasudotox has expanded treatment options for patients with HCL that is resistant to nucleoside analogs.