Assistant Director of Clinical Cytogenetics Laboratory and Research Coordinator
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Phone: 716-845-5880
e-mail: sheila.sait@roswellpark.org

 

Dr. Sheila Sait joined the staff of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in 1988. She earned her doctoral degree in Cancer Genetics at Bangalore University, Bangalore, India (1985). She did postdoctoral fellowships both at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and at the Genetics Center of Southwest Biomedical Research Institute, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Dr. Sait has faculty appointments in the Department of Cancer Pathology and Prevention at the State University of New York at Buffalo and at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. She holds a Certificate of Qualification, to serve as Director of a Clinical Cytogenetics Laboratory in New York State. Dr. Sait has also been a mentor to high school students, college students and pathology residents.

Dr. Sait's research interests include leukemia and lymphomas and chromosomal analysis of solid tumors. She is a member of the American Society of Human Genetics and has authored or co-authored over 170 publications, book chapters and abstracts.

General Research Interest
Among the leukemias and lymphomas, to identify groups of patients that share common chromosome abnormalities and use fluorescence based assays to further delineate these patients into subgroups based on common regions of abnormalities at the molecular level and to develope assays for early detection and characterization of tumors.

Another area of research is the chromosomal analysis of different solid tumors. While a multitude of literature exists about cytogenetic analysis of hematologic malignancies, there is not much information on the solid tumors, and this has been due to a variety of technical difficulties and complexities of the karyotypes obtained. Studies are ongoing on unusual cases of sarcomas, thyroid and colon tumors.

Selected Publications

• Cheung, V.G., Nowak, N., Jang, W., Kirsch, I.R., Zhao, S., Chen, X-N., Kim, U-J., Kuo, W-L., Olivier, M., Conroy, J., Furey, T., Kasprzyk, A., Massa, H., Yonescu, R., Sait, S., Thoreen, C., Snijders, A., Lemyre, E., Bruzel, A., Burrill, W.D., Clegg, S.M., Collins, S., Dhami, P., Friedman, C., Lee, J., Lowry, S., Morley, M., Narasimhan, S., Peng, Z., Plajzer-Frick, I., Scott, D., Sirotkin, K., Thorpe, A.A., Eichler, E.E., Gray, J.W., Hudson, J., Pinkel, D., Ried, T., Rowen, L., Shen-Ong, G.L., Strausberg, R.L., Birney, J-F., Doggett, N., CD., Carter, N.P., Haussler, D., Korenberg, J.R., Morton, C.C., Albertson, D., Schuler, G., deJong, P., Trask, B.J. Integration of cytogenetic landmarks into the draft sequence of the human genome. Nature 409:953-958, 2001.
• Stanulla, M., Chhalliyil, P., Wang, J., Jani-Sait, S.N., Aplan, P.D. Mechanisms of MLL rearrangements: site-specific DNA cleavage within the breakpoint cluster region is independent of chromosomal context. Human Molecular Genet 10:2481-2491, 2001.
• Deeb G, Baer MR, Gaile D.P., Sait S.N, Barcos M, Wetzler M, Conroy JM, Nowak NJ, Cowell JK, Cheney RT. Genomic profiling of myeloid sarcoma by array comparative genomic hybridization. Genes Chromosomes Cancer Dec;44(4):373-83, 2005
• Mhawech-Fauceglia P, Herrmann F, Sait S, Block AM, Malik D, Odunsi K, Balos L, Cheney RT. Diagnostic utility of FLI-1 monoclonal antibody and dual-colour, break-apart probe fluorescence in situ (FISH) analysis in Ewing’s sarcoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumour (EWS/PNET). A comparative study with CD99 and FLI-1 polyclonal antibodies. Histopathology. 49 (6):569-575, 2006
• Hurd T.C., Sait S.N.J., Kohga S., Winston J., Martinick M., Saxena R., Lankes H., Markus G., Harvey S., Gibbs J.F. Plasminogen Activator System Localization in 60 Cases of Ductal Carcinoma in Situ. Annals of Surgical Oncology. Nov;14(11):3117-24, 2007
• Arana-Yi C., Block A.W., Sait SNJ, Ford L., Barcos M., Baer M.. Therapy-Related Myelodysplastic Syndrome and Acute Myeloid Leukemia Following Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Possible Role of Cytarabine. Leukemia Research. Leukemia Research. 32:1043-1048, 2008