Cellular Mechanisms

Cellular Mechanisms Program Summary The Cellular Mechanisms (CM) Program focuses on defining the key signaling and transcriptional mechanisms that drive tumor progression, both within tumor cells and in the tumor microenvironment, and developing new therapeutic approaches to target these mechanisms. The goal of the CM Program is to integrate the information gained from our synergistic research areas to identify novel tumor and host-cell mechanisms that can be exploited to define new biomarkers or to limit disease progression and metastasis. The CM Research Program is structured around 3 well-integrated Aims: 1) Identify biomarkers of early disease and oncogenic signaling pathways that can be targeted to limit tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis; 2) Define, characterize, and regulate transcriptional programs that enhance malignancy or resistance to therapy; and 3) Determine how tumor–stromal interactions impact tumor progression, invasion, migration, and metastasis, and develop host-based therapies that target oncogenic signaling pathways in tumor cells. The CM Program is co-led by Daniel Harki, PhD, an expert in medicinal chemistry and drug development, and Kaylee Schwertfeger, PhD, an expert in tumor cell signaling and mechanisms of tumor–stromal interactions. CM’s 50 members, representing 18 departments and 7 schools or colleges, are highly collaborative, are leaders in their fields, and include several scholars with both clinical and laboratory expertise. In 2022, they were supported by $20.8M in cancer-relevant research funding, of which $8.8M was from the NCI. Since 2018, Program members have published 642 papers, 12% of which resulted from intraprogrammatic collaborations, 32% from interprogrammatic collaborations, and 67% from external collaborations. To move their research from the bench to the clinic, they participate in several Translational Working Groups and lead interventional clinical trials evaluating new targeted therapies and observational clinical trials to diagnose tumors using novel molecular and imaging technologies. The Masonic Cancer Center has provided substantial value to the program, including access to Shared Resources, funding of pilot projects that were effectively leveraged into larger external grants, engagement with clinicians through the Translational Working Groups, and support from the Cancer Research Translational Initiative to move CM basic and translational research to the clinic.