Damon Runyon News

Dr. Naik is studying the interactions between immune cells and adult skin tissue stem cells in an effort to understand the how this crosstalk drives epithelial disorders, including chronic inflammation and cancer. Because adult tissue stem cells are long-lived cells that continually replenish tissues throughout an organism's lifetime, they represent ideal points of therapeutic intervention.

Dr. Jain focuses on understanding how the level of mRNA species in the cell is regulated. Disruption of these regulatory processes can lead to cancer initiation and progression. These processes are carried out at discrete cytoplasmic non-membrane bound organelles called processing bodies (P-bodies). He aims to develop a molecular understanding of P-body architecture, assembly rules, and their role in gene regulation. 

Dr. Bar-Peled is exploring how the protease Caspase-8 regulates T cell activation, which represents a critical step in the adaptive immune response to cancer. While Caspase-8 has long been appreciated to be essential for T cell activation, the molecular mechanisms underlying its role in this process remain poorly understood. His work will focus on identifying and characterizing the proteins cleaved by Caspase-8, which may provide additional therapeutic avenues to activate T cells to target malignant cells in cancer patients.

Dr. Vierbuchen [HHMI Fellow] aims to understand how neurons adapt to experience by modifying the complement of genes they express. He is using high-throughput sequencing-based approaches to identify and characterize the function of genomic regulatory elements that control neuronal activity-regulated gene transcription. 

Dr. Lao focuses on genome instability and altered metabolism, which are common characteristics of cancer. The "DNA damage checkpoint" detects and repairs DNA damage to maintain genomic integrity and has also been implicated in regulating metabolism through an unknown mechanism. Identifying metabolic targets of the DNA damage checkpoint will advance our knowledge of the underlying signaling pathway and provide additional targets for cancer therapy. 

Dr. Fang [HHMI Fellow] aims to understand the mechanism and regulation of microRNA biogenesis. MicroRNAs function to regulate gene expression and their disruption contributes to the initiation and progression of cancer. She will combine high-throughput sequencing techniques and biochemistry to examine the recognition and processing of microRNA precursors, which may ultimately contribute to more effective cancer diagnosis and therapy. 

Dr. Crest is studying the mechanical forces between cells and their underlying substrate, or extracellular matrix (ECM). The physical properties of cells and the ECM shape tissues during development and are critical for malignant tumor progression and metastasis. His research will determine which molecules generate and balance the mechanical forces involved in migration and tissue formation and thus identify novel mechanisms of malignancy.

Dr. Cianfrocco [HHMI Fellow] studies proteins called dynactin and dynein that function to transport organelles within the cell, a process that is particularly important during cell division. He aims to elucidate the structural basis for dynactin's ability to regulate dynein activity. Since many viruses, including cancer-causing oncoviruses, require dynein to be transported from the cell membrane to the nucleus for genome replication, understanding the molecular details of dynein-dynactin function may provide novel targets for cancer therapies. 

Dr. Chow studies the molecular basis of how cancer cells maintain the ability to divide indefinitely. In most human cancers, an enzyme named telomerase is crucial in maintaining chromosomal ends (or telomeres) to achieve immortality. She is exploring a novel mechanism for telomere maintenance, which could advance the development of improved therapeutics for glioblastoma and other cancers.

Dr. Lau [Robert Black Fellow] aims to characterize the unique metabolism of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cancer cells. In general, it is known that cancer cells have altered metabolism compared to non-cancerous cells; however, it is unknown how different cell types within a tumor utilize nutrients and how this may contribute to tumor progression and metastasis. This research will provide insight into the metabolic dependencies of different cells found within the pancreatic tumor environment and may potentially be useful for developing novel therapies.