Cancer
Cancer Focus Areas
- Cancer Drug Resistance
- Mechanisms of Spread
- Genetic Diagnostics & Tumor Profiling
- Rare Cancers
- Identifying & Exploiting Cancer Vulnerabilities
- RNA & Cancer
- Immune Systems vs. Cancer
- Individual Cancer Cell Behaviors in Tumors
- Bone Cancers
- Pancreatic Cancers
- Breast Cancers
- Blood Cancers
Labs studying Cancer
Ahn Lab
The Ahn Lab investigates mammalian cell signaling, including the roles of protein molecular motions and cell membrane trafficking. They are particularly interested in understanding situations such as cancer where these processes go awry, how to turn this into a cellular vulnerability for targeted therapies, and strategies to overcome cancer drug resistance.
Cech Lab
The Cech Lab specializes in functional RNAs, from the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of catalytic RNAs (ribozymes) to dissecting the RNA-protein complex telomerase that creates and maintains the protective ends of chromosomes to recent work on exploring the vast new territory of long noncoding RNAs to ascribe molecular function to these gene products. Their work gives important insights into cancer, aging, and fundamentals of life.
Chuong Lab
The Chuong Lab investigates the evolution and function of gene regulatory networks, or the choreography of gene activity in response to specific cues. They are particularly interested in virus-derived 鈥淒NA parasites鈥 that have been co-opted by human genomes over evolutionary time and are responsible for biological landmarks such as the placenta and human-specific immune system traits.
Hill Lab
The Hill Lab studies how gut microbes impact the pancreas. Their research has implications for Type I Diabetes, pancreatic cancer, and fetal pancreas development. Their goal is to develop microbially-derived treatments to prevent or reverse disease.
Janetzko Lab
The Janetzko Lab studies G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a diverse class of cell membrane-spanning signaling proteins that interpret messages such as odors, light, mood, allergens, and heart rate. They are the targets of ~700 drugs, including 尾-blockers, antihistamines, 鈥渆pi pens鈥, depression therapies, and many more. There are still many unknowns about GPCRs, and the Janetzko Lab is investigating how their function is fine-tuned, how they are moved throughout the cell, and how they are recycled with a combination of biochemical and biophysical approaches.
Layer Lab
The Layer Lab studies the ways in which genetic variation affects human health by developing computational genomics tools to analyze population-scale datasets. They are particularly interested in large chromosomal rearrangements (or, structural mutations) and uncovering how those contribute to the spectrum of normal human variation across global populations and which of those are causal factors in cancers.
Lynch Lab
The Lynch Lab studies the skeletal mechanical environment and its regulation of cancer using mechanical loading model systems to correlate cellular function with cancer pathogenesis, tissue-level changes in tumor burden, and skeletal tissue strength. They aim to identify targets for treating and preventing bone metastases as well as cancer-associated reductions in bone strength.
Palmer Lab
The Palmer Lab investigates how cells regulate and respond to metal ions, how pathogens alter cell biology, and how to engineer dynamic fluorescent proteins to report on changes in living cells. Their work lies at the interface of chemistry and biology and has included the development of novel, genetically encoded molecular tools.
Spencer Lab
The Spencer Lab investigates cell signaling mechanisms to understand how these signals go awry in cancer with the goal of altering the fate of individual cells. They study single cells, which display remarkable variability in these processes within a genetically identical cellular population, using fluorescent sensors they developed in long-term live-cell microscopy and cell tracking experiments to quantify signaling dynamics controlling cell fate.
