Rate My Professor Adam de Smith

Adam de Smith is an assistant professor in the Center for Genetic Epidemiology and the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California. He earned his PhD in human genetics from Imperial College London and previously served as a postdoctoral researcher and assistant researcher with Dr. Joseph Wiemels at the University of California, San Francisco, before joining USC in 2018. De Smith's research focuses on the genetic epidemiology of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer. He investigates the underlying causes of ALL, emphasizing increased risks in high-risk populations such as children of Hispanic/Latino ancestry and those with Down syndrome. His laboratory employs molecular and epidemiological methods, including mutational epidemiology to examine somatic mutational patterns and potential causative agents. De Smith leads the International Study of Down Syndrome Acute Leukemia (IS-DSAL), a multi-institutional global collaboration assessing genetic and epigenetic contributions to leukemia risk in children with Down syndrome. He is a member of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), the Childhood Leukemia International Consortium (CLIC), and collaborates on the California Childhood Leukemia Study (CCLS). Additionally, his work involves partnerships with institutions like the University of Minnesota and University of Oxford to analyze cord blood and newborn dried blood spots for pre-leukemic mutations and cells of origin.

De Smith has secured major funding to advance ALL prevention strategies, including the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Career Development Program Scholar Award in July 2023, a five-year $600,000 grant for studying causes of ALL in susceptible populations. He also received National Institutes of Health grants R01CA262263 in 2022 to understand elevated ALL risk in Latinos and R03HD109778 for genetic determinants of lymphocyte traits and ALL risk in children with Down syndrome. His research has identified key genetic factors, such as an IKZF1 cis-regulatory variant associated with reduced gene expression and increased ALL risk among Hispanic/Latino children, contributing to ethnic disparities. Other findings link early-life tobacco exposure to aberrant DNA methylation in ALL and blood cell traits like lymphocyte ratios to leukemia risk. These discoveries support the development of precision prevention, including potential newborn screening for high-risk children. De Smith is affiliated with the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and has been recognized with departmental faculty awards for excellence.