Cancer

The Blumberg Lab is broadly interested in the study of gene regulation and intercellular signaling during embryonic development. They study a family of regulatory proteins called nuclear hormone receptors and their ligands. These receptors are all members of the steroid receptor superfamily and are ligand-regulated transcription factors that regulate important events during embryonic development and adult physiology.

The Buisson Lab focuses on genome instability, viral infection, and innate immune response. The ongoing research program in the laboratory focuses on unexplored aspects of cellular transcription and translation regulation associated with viral infections and DNA damage. Transcriptional and translational control of mRNAs allows cells to rapidly and dynamically adapt to a variety of stimuli including viral infections, chemotherapeutic treatments, and environmental stresses. The lab is particularly interested in better understanding the interplay between the innate immune system and transcriptional or translational control in response to viral infections and genotoxic stressors.

The Downing lab explores new and innovative approaches to cell and tissue engineering. They are particularly interested in understanding how the genome is regulated through non-sequence-based changes to DNA (epigenetics) during healthy tissue development and disease progression. The human genome contains basic instructions required for multicellular life. However, DNA sequence alone tells only part of the story. While all cells within our body have the same genetic makeup, each cell expresses this genetic information differently, which contributes to variations in cellular identity and specific tissue functions. This differential expression is accomplished through epigenetic regulation of genes. The lab’s goal is to develop molecular tools and biomaterials to synthetically regulate the epigenome for better control over cell fate and behavior. Their biomedical interests include heart regeneration, tissue longevity and robustness, the human-material interface, and cancer.

The Hertel Lab focuses on understanding the mechanisms that allow for the generation of alternative splicing patterns. Their long-term goals are to understand how these processes are regulated, to relate the basic mechanisms of splice-site recognition to biological processes and to identify strategies to manipulate the expression of splicing isoforms in disease genes. To achieve these goals, they use a wide variety of approaches that include biochemistry, genetics, deep sequencing and bioinformatics.

The Jang lab aims to understand how nutrient metabolism across organs and gut microbiome can go awry to cause diseases. They focus on disease-linked nutrients such as fructose, alcohol, fiber, and fat in the context of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, NAFLD, NASH, and cancers. To this end, they employ metabolomics, lipidomics, and stable isotope tracing in animal models and human patients.

The Kaiser Lab uses biochemistry, cell biology, and chemical biology to discover molecular mechanisms that govern fundamental biological processes. Their research aims to (i) investigate mechanistic questions about cell cycle control and the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, (ii) understand how metabolic pathways communicate with the cell proliferation machinery, and (iii) develop novel approaches to directed drug design, which they apply to the development of small molecules to reactivate mutant p53 in human cancer.

The Kessenbrock Lab studies cellular communication in single cell resolution in the context of normal tissue homeostasis and in breast cancer. They want to understand how stem cell behavior is extrinsically regulated by the microenvironment of the mammary stem cell niche and learn how the molecular composition of the niche changes during tumorigenesis. Their interdisciplinary research approach will identify biomarkers for early detection and may ultimately lead to the discovery of novel therapeutic approaches to treat or even prevent breast cancer before it develops.

The Lawson lab is interested in understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the metastatic spread of cancer cells to peripheral tissues. They take a systems-level approach, using cutting edge single-cell technologies to understand how the interplay between intracellular signals within the cancer cells, and extracellular stimuli from cells in the microenvironment influence the metastatic potential of individual cancer cells. They believe that new insights into the metastatic process will lead to new drugs to prevent and treat metastatic disease.

Research in the Masri lab is aimed at understanding the relationship between disruption of circadian rhythms and tumorigenesis. They are interested in two research questions. The first question relates to how genetic disruption of the circadian clock in mouse models alters tumorigenesis both at the level of initiation and disease progression. The second question is aimed at elucidating the systemic crosstalk between tumors and peripheral tissues and how cancer cells are able to rewire circadian metabolism at a distance.

The Pannunzio Lab is a Cancer Genetics lab that focuses on mechanisms underpinning the large-scale chromosome rearrangements that occur in B cells and result in leukemia and lymphoma. They do this by studying how a person’s genetic background and lifestyle (diet, environment, medical intervention, etc.) contribute to damage to DNA that can result in cancer.

A major initiative in the lab is to understand what is driving cancer health disparities in certain populations. There is a higher incidence of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in Hispanics and multiple myeloma in African Americans. Through their work, they want to understand why these populations are disproportionately affected by these cancers. Another hurdle they want to overcome is de-aggregation of genomics data from ethnically and culturally distinct groups. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau and the scientific community place all Hispanics under one umbrella instead of differentiating between Spanish, Mexican, Central American, South America, Native American, Cuban, and Puerto Rican. The result is aggregation of data and masking of health disparities within distinct communities.

The Seldin Lab is interested in dissecting mechanisms of integrative physiology using systems genetics approaches.  Specifically, their focus is to understand mechanisms of inter-organ signaling by combining population genetics and experimental approaches.  This entails surveying natural variation in mouse and human populations for concordant patterns of genetic architecture, clinical traits and intermediary molecular information (eg. transcripts, proteins and/or metabolites).  The basic intuition for these approaches assumes that striking links exist between genetic variation and clinical outcomes, which can only be understood when analyzed alongside molecular information.  This requires a combination of bioinformatics, biochemical and physiologic experimental approaches.

Dr. Xiaolin Zi’s research team studies the efficacy and mechanism of active components of the Kava plant for prevention of tobacco-related bladder cancer using mouse carcinogenesis models. They are developing Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatograph (UPLC)-MS/MS, Chip-sequence, microarray and other molecular biology techniques (e.g., transfection and RNA interference) to study the role of tobacco-related bladder carcinogens and Kava chemicals in histone lysine methylation and epigenetic gene regulation, leading to carcinogenic and anti-carcinogenic effects.

Dr. Zi’s research team also investigates the role of Wnt signaling pathway in the resistance of anti-angiogenic cancer therapy and examine the usefulness of secreted Wnt antagonists for improving the efficacy of  bevacizumab in treatment of prostate cancer. The lab has established several lines of patient-derived xenograft prostate cancer models and human prostate stromal cell lines.