Damon Runyon News

Dr. Pollen is using comparative genomics, single cell gene expression, and stem cell biology approaches to study genes uniquely expressed in human neural stem cells. Because the development of the human brain involves many of the same processes - increased proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis - that become dysregulated in brain tumors, these genes with specific neural stem cell expression may serve as therapeutic targets and diagnostic markers of brain tumor stem cells that initiate glioblastoma and other cancers. 

Dr. Sparks focuses on a protein complex called the eukaryotic replisome, which replicates cellular DNA during cell division. He is studying how the replisome handles persistent bulky DNA lesions that block the progression of the replicative helicase enzyme and how cells repair covalent DNA-protein cross-links (DPCs). DPCs are generated by formaldehyde and other endogenous metabolites and environmental mutagens and are almost certainly important for cancer etiology.

Dr. Chio works on pancreatic cancer, which is a particularly devastating and difficult-to-treat disease because of its ability to grow in conditions of high oxidative stress-conditions in which normal cells would not survive. She is evaluating the biological role of oxidative stress in pancreatic cancer development and progression, using both in mouse models of pancreatic cancer as well as human tumor samples. Her work may result in a novel therapeutic approach for this disease.  

Dr. Liu will utilize a novel technology based on CRISPR to study the effect of an epigenetic chemical modification called 5-hmC on gene expression. He will analyze the effect at a single genome level and then define the role of 5-hmC in normal mammalian development and in cancer.

Dr. Nager [Fayez Sarofim Fellow] is studying the primary cilium, an organelle that cells use to sense the environment and communicate with other cells. To do so, the primary cilium selectively exchanges signaling molecules with the cell body. He is using cell biology, biochemistry, and biophysics to understand the gate between the primary cilium and the cell body. Because dysfunctions of the primary cilium promote cancer and cause developmental disease, this research is an important new avenue of exploration.

Dr. Boettiger uses new high-resolution imaging technology to visualize the spatial arrangement of the genome in individual cells. Alterations in the physical structure of the genome affect gene expression and cell behavior. He aims to explain how mutations and genome structure changes give rise to malignancy and treatment resistance in cancer cells.

Dr. Racki [HHMI Fellow] is studying metabolism of compounds called polyphosphates in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterial pathogen that can lead to lethal infections in immunocompromised cancer patients. Polyphosphates, inorganic polymers linked by specific chemical bonds, play a role in virulence in P. aeruginosa, but are also evolutionarily ubiquitous and found from bacteria to mammalian cells.

Dr. Viny [William Raveis Charitable Fund Fellow] is studying the oncogenic role of abnormalities in the cohesin complex-a group of proteins that function to align and stabilize sister chromatids (copies of the chromosomes) during cell division.  Mutations within several proteins in this complex have been identified in solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, particularly acute myeloid leukemia, the most common adult leukemia. Although it was presumed these mutations would result in unbalanced chromosomal breaks, this outcome has not yet been observed.

Dr. Wang seeks to understand the mechanisms by which tumor cells become resistant to drug therapy and spread to distant organs. She is utilizing functional genomics tools to identify novel pathways modulating these processes in the hope of developing new therapies to augment treatment response in cancer patients. 

Dr. Piggott [Lefkofsky Family Fellow] is exploring the role of ion channels in brain cancer. Ion channels function as a “gate” to regulate the movement of ions (such as sodium and potassium) into and out of the cell.  They are essential for proper cell growth and signaling in normal cells, and misregulation or mutations in ion channels have been linked to cancer cell proliferation and metastasis.