The main areas of research interest are mutations and genomic aberrations associated with malignant transformation and pigmentation and malignant transformation, targeted therapy, and immunobiology of melanoma. Dr. Halaban and her colleagues characterized the mutational landscape of over 400 melanomas. They showed that NF1, a negative regulator of RAS, is the 3rd most frequently mutated gene in melanoma, after BRAF and NRAS. They identified a recurrent UV- signature, activating P29S mutation in RAC1 in 5% of sun-exposed melanomas. Furthermore, in acral melanomas, they revealed late-arising focal amplifications in chr22q11.21, which that include LZTR1 and CRKL, associated with poor outcomes and regional metastases. Most recently, they identified the immunological features associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI)-induced toxicity. They found that two pretreatment factors in circulation—activated CD4 memory T cell abundance and TCR diversity—are associated with severe irAE development regardless of organ system involvement.