Advancing our understanding of follicular lymphoma.
Follicular lymphoma begins in the germinal center, the part of a lymph node where B cells learn to make better antibodies. We study what goes wrong there, using open genomic data and modern data science, so that the disease can be predicted earlier and treated better.
Understand follicular lymphoma well enough to change its course.
Follicular lymphoma is one of the most common lymphomas. Many people live with it for years, and treatments keep improving. Yet it still tends to come back, and in some patients it turns into a fast-growing lymphoma. Which patients, when, and why are still open questions.
Germinal Center Research exists to help answer them. We turn scattered genomic and clinical data into evidence: which mutations drive the disease, how tumors change over time, and what signals warn of trouble early. We share methods and results openly so that clinicians and laboratories can test and build on them.
- Where it starts. Most follicular lymphomas carry the t(14;18) translocation, which switches on BCL2 and lets germinal center B cells that should die survive instead.
- What it needs next. The translocation alone is not enough. Mutations in genes that control how DNA is packaged, such as KMT2D, CREBBP and EZH2, are among the most common additional hits.
- Why it matters. The same germinal center program that makes good antibodies also creates the conditions for these mistakes. Understanding that program is the path to understanding the disease.
Four questions we are working on
Transformation
Why some follicular lymphomas become aggressive, and whether the mutations present at diagnosis or across later biopsies can flag that risk early.
Clonal evolution
How tumors change over time: which mutations are present from the start, which appear later, and what that tells us about relapse.
Usable data
Much of the evidence sits in free-text pathology and sequencing reports. We build open tools that turn those reports into structured, checkable research data.
The germinal center program
How the normal biology of the germinal center, from mutation to selection by helper cells, shapes which changes lead to lymphoma.
How we work
Open data first
We start from public genomic datasets and published cohorts, and we describe exactly which data each result comes from.
Privacy by design
No patient-identifiable information is ever published. Clinical data stays with the institutions that hold it.
Checkable methods
Every model is scored against verified ground truth, and we report where it fails as well as where it works.
Hypotheses, then the lab
Computation proposes; experiments decide. We aim to hand laboratories ranked, testable ideas.
Collaboration
We work with clinicians, laboratories and data holders, and credit every contribution.
Patients in mind
The goal is better outcomes for people living with follicular lymphoma, not papers for their own sake.
The follicular lymphoma driver deck
Sixty tarot-size study cards, one for each gene and concept that drives follicular lymphoma, grouped into eleven color-coded modules from founder events to immune evasion.
- Front: the gene, its pathway module, and a map of its chromosome with the locus marked, plus coordinates, span, exon count and protein length.
- Back: the lesion as it appears in follicular lymphoma, the mechanism, what it means in the clinic, and how it is measured.
- Printed on 330 gsm card stock in a custom tuck box. 2026 edition.
An educational study aid, not medical advice. Coordinates and frequencies are for orientation, not citation.
We do not give medical advice.
Please talk with your hematologist or oncologist about your care. These organizations offer reliable information and support:
Work with us
We are looking for laboratories that can test computational hypotheses, clinicians interested in transformation risk, and groups that hold follicular lymphoma datasets and want to put them to wider use.
Mike Smith, PhD
A data scientist who has spent three decades in media, technology and data, now applying the same methods to the biology of follicular lymphoma. mikesmith.ventures