Research Summary
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy, with appointments also in the Department of Pathology and the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. My laboratory focuses on understanding how scavenging pathways such as autophagy and the lysosome - a degradative organelle - enables metabolic and cellular adaptation to stress and contributes to aggressive features of disease. Beyond mediating degradation of diverse macromolecules, the lysosome also plays an important role in signal transduction, cellular quality control, metabolism and detoxification.
My lab has a particular interest in how the lysosome contributes to cancer pathogenesis with a focus on studying pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). our work has identified novel mechanisms mediating constitutive activation of lysosome biogenesis via coordinated transcriptional upregulation of lysosome transcriptional signatures in PDA and in normal physiological contexts. We have also discovered a new role for autophagy and the lysosome in facilitating immune evasion of PDA cells through selective capture and degradation of Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I (MHC-I). Our ongoing research leverages our combined experience in cellular trafficking, autophagy and lysosome function combined with in vitro and in vivo model systems, organelle isolation and mass spectrometry based proteomics to determine critical roles of the lysosome in cancer progression and metastasis, tumor heterogeneity, stress adaptation and drug resistance.
Research Funding
September 30, 2016 - August 31, 2021 - Tracking tumor evolution through in vivo organelle profiling, Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NCI, Sponsor Award ID: DP2CA216364
September 30, 2016 - August 31, 2021 - Tracking tumor evolution through in vivo organelle profiling, Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NCI, Sponsor Award ID: DP2CA216364
September 30, 2016 - August 31, 2021 - Tracking tumor evolution through in vivo organelle profiling, Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NCI, Sponsor Award ID: DP2CA216364
September 30, 2016 - August 31, 2021 - Tracking tumor evolution through in vivo organelle profiling, Principal Investigator. Sponsor: NIH/NCI, Sponsor Award ID: DP2CA216364
Education
University of Melbourne, Australia, BSc, 1999, Pathology/ Biochemistry
University of Melbourne and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, BSc, 2000, Cancer Biology
University of Melbourne and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, PhD, 2007, Cancer Biology
Yale University, postdoctoral, 2008, Cell Biology
MGH Cancer Center, postdoctoral, 2013, Cancer Biology
MGH Cancer Center, Instructor, 2015, Cancer Biology