Past Shulamit Katzman Endowed Postdoctoral Research Fellows
Kaloyan Tsanov
Mentor: Scott Lowe
Project: Organ-specific Effects of Smad4 in Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer
Josef Leibold
Mentor: Scott Lowe
Project: Dissecting mechanisms of immune surveillance and evasion during metastatic spread using non-germline mouse models of gastric cancer
Karuna Ganesh
Mentor: Joan Massagué
Project: Investigating and targeting L1CAM in metastatic cancer stem cells
Ekrem Er
Mentor: Joan Massagué
Project: The role of L1CAM-driven vascular co-option in metastasis
Past Alan and Sandra Gerry Postdoctoral Research Fellows
2019
Joseph Chan
Mentor: Dana Pe’er
Project: Integrative Single-Cell Sequencing in Lung Cancer Patients with Combined Neuroendocrine Histology to Identify Molecular Drivers and Targets of Small Cell Transformation
2020
Arianna Baggiolini
Mentor: Lorenz Studer
Project: Melanoma brain metastases and modeling using human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived brain organoids
The use of brain organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) is a rapidly evolving field. Those models are still a great simplification of the complexity of the human brain, but the whole field is committed to generating more relevant models for human disorders, including cancer. We have now developed a hPSCs-based brain organoid system with increased neural progenitor heterogeneity, resulting in greater cellular architecture and boosted neuronal physiology. We will now use those models to study the human brain microenvironment of brain tumors and metastases.
2024
Jun Ho Lee
Mentor: Joan Massagué
Project: Characterizing contextual mediator of TGFβ-induced fibrogenic EMTs in metastasis
Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transitions (EMTs) and extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling are distinct yet important processes during carcinoma invasion and metastasis. TGF-β and RAS, signaling through SMAD and RAS-responsive element-binding protein 1 (RREB1), jointly trigger expression of EMT and fibrogenic factors as two discrete arms of a common transcriptional response in carcinoma cells. Here we demonstrate that both arms come together forming a program for lung adenocarcinoma metastasis and identify chromatin determinants tying the expression of the constituent genes to TGF-β and RAS inputs. RREB1 localizes to H4K16acK20ac marks in histone H2A.Z-loaded nucleosomes at enhancers in the fibrogenic genes IL11, PDGFB, and HAS2 as well as the EMT transcription factor SNAI1, priming these enhancers for activation by a SMAD4-INO80 nucleosome remodeling complex in response to TGF-β. These regulatory properties segregate the fibrogenic EMT program from RASindependent TGF-β gene responses and illuminate the operation and vulnerabilities of a bifunctional program that promotes metastatic outgrowth.
Past GMTEC’s Metastasis Scholars Fellows
2020
Patricia M. R. Pereira
Mentor: Jason Lewis
Project: Synergy between HER2-targeted immunotherapy and CAV1 modulation in HER2-driven metastatic gastric cancer
2019
Yudan Chi
Mentor: Adrienne Boire
Project: Microenvironmental effects on cancer cells in Leptomeningeal Metastasis
2018
Deepti Mathur
Mentor: Joao Xavier
Project: The influence of the metabolic microenvironment on metastatic tropism: quantitative experiments and mathematical models.
Ting-Hsiang Huang
Mentor: Richard White
Project: Investigate the relationship between fatty acids and melanoma progression through epigenetic reprogramming
2017
Francisco Barriga
Mentor: Scott Lowe
Project: Dissecting the role of large genomic deletions in colorectal cancer metastasis.
Zhenghan Wang
Mentor: Joan Massagué
Project: Understanding the role of TGF- signaling in metastatic latency.
Pierre-Louis Loyher
Mentor: Frederic Geissmann
Project: Role of resident macrophages in lung metastasis development.
Alexandre Francou
Mentor: Kathryn Anderson
Project: Regulation and quantitative dynamic analysis of EMT in vivo.
Efstathios Stamatiades
Mentor: Ming Li
Project: Immunosurveillance of Early Disseminated Tumor Cells by Innate Lymphoid Cells and Innate-like T Cells.
2016
Tzu‐Pei Chang
Mentor: Kitai Kim
Project: Inhibition of tumorigenesis and metastasis by NEPN
Jing Hu
Mentor: Joan Massagué
Project: Dissecting the roles of STING signaling pathway in cancer metastasis
Contantinos Zambirinis
Mentor: William Jarnagin
Project: Development of novel imaging and laboratory biomarkers to monitor the liver pre‐metastatic niche and guide treatment
2015
Intissar Akalay
Mentor: Filippo Giancotti
Project: Targeting non-canonical discoidin domain receptor signaling for metastasis therapy
Wytse Bruinsma
Mentor: John Petrini
Project: The tumor suppressive barrier in response to oncogenes: MRN‐complex dependent genome rearrangements to prevent tumorigenesis and metastasis
Ashley M. Laughney
Mentor: Joan Massagué
Project: Uncovering Transcriptional Vulnerabilities in Latent Metastasis
Kajan Ratnakumar
Mentor: Richard White
Project: Understanding the roles of pigmentation in melanoma metastasis
Francisco Sanchez Vega
Mentor: Nikolaus Schultz
Project: Comprehensive genomic characterization of the tissue-pecific characteristics of metastasis in the MSK-IMPACT cohort
Yosef Shamay
Mentor: Glenn Heller
Project: Radiation-guided drug delivery to metastases via a novel abscopal-like effect
2014
Ekrem Er
Mentor: Joan Massagué
Project: The role of L1CAM-driven vascular co-option in metastasis
Wenjing Su
Mentor: Filippo Giancotti
Project: Identification of pro-metastatic genes involved in bone metastasis of prostate cancer
Lisa K. Sevenich
Mentor: Johanna Joyce
Project: Therapeutic targeting of tumor-associated macrophages/microglia in breast-to-brain metastasis