Exploiting Vulnerabilities in High‑Risk MM and Mapping the Red Cell Interactome

In this week's episode, Blood editor Dr. Laurie Sehn interviews Drs. Mariateresa Fulciniti and Angelo D'Alessandro on their latest articles published in Blood. Dr. Fulciniti, of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the development of "PKMYT1 is a targetable vulnerability in del(17p) high-risk multiple myeloma" starting from the question, "Is 17P loss simply a prognostic marker, or does it create specific vulnerabilities that we can therapeutically exploit?" Then, Dr. D'Alessandro, of the University of Colorado, discusses "The red blood cell proteome and interactome identify a Band 3–BLVRB axis regulating hypoxic metabolic adaptation." His team began by asking, "What's in a red blood cell? How many proteins are there, and how can we confidently claim that these now several 1000s of proteins in opposite excess are indeed proteins within red blood cells are not coming from contaminants?" Both studies describe how deep molecular profiling can uncover specific, potentially targetable biological dependencies or interaction axes that may enable more precise, mechanism‑based therapeutic strategies.