McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research
March 2026 Publications
Fahl WE, Goesch HR, Goesch SR, Fahl BL. A Defined Patho-Mechanism for Acute Radiation Syndrome Death and a Three-Drug Regimen to Prevent It. Int J Mol Sci. 2026 Mar 14;27(6):2659. doi: 10.3390/ijms27062659. PMID: 41898522; PMCID: PMC13026317.
Acute Radiation Syndrome mortality is driven by gastrointestinal barrier failure, which leads to sepsis. Dr. Bill Fahl and collaborators developed a three-drug regimen that, when administered 24 hours post-exposure, yielded a 92% survival rate in mice. This treatment offers a solution to prevent death from high-dose radiation exposure.
Gao A, Khatri PH, Ma G, Liu P, Fernandez-Martinez A, Donahue K, Wang Y, Kim EJ, Hu M, Liu F, Zhou J, Chan NT, Yang X, Welch Schwartz R, Ong IM, Burkard ME, Wisinski KB, Perou CM, Dinh HQ, Xu W. Integrated Multi-omic Profiling Identifies BRD8/EP400 as a Pivotal Chromatin Module Mediating Anti-HER2 Response in HR+/HER2+ Breast Cancer. Cancer Res. 2026 Mar 26. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-25-4701. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41886605.
HER2/hormone receptor–positive breast cancers that are initially susceptible to drug treatment can become resistant, leading to recurrence and poor outcomes for patients. Through comprehensive molecular profiling approaches, Drs. Wei Xu and Huy Dinh, together with their teams, identified a pair of epigenetic regulators that play a role in resistance to therapy.
Golfinos-Owens AE, Lozar T, Khatri P, Johns ED, Hu R, Harari PM, Lambert PF, Fitzpatrick MB, Dinh HQ. Integrated single-cell and spatial analysis reveal context-dependent myeloid-T cell interactions in response to immune checkpoint blockade in head and neck cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2026 Mar 16. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-25-2300. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41837744.
The cutting-edge techniques of single-cell RNA profiling, together with spatial analysis ot tumor microdomains, is beginning to illuminate the role of immune cells in tumor growth. This paper, led by Dr. Huy Dinh’s lab in collaboration with members of the Wisconsin Head and Neck SPORE, shows that T cells and myeloid cells may talk to one another to control the efficacy of immunotherapy for head and neck tumors
Liu X, Bilger A, Lee D, Argyris PP, Chen J, Ward-Shaw E, Barreto Duran E, Lin Y-HT, Durfee C, Chun SH, Ibrahim M, Proehl J, York AJ, Lambert PF, Harris RS. Mus musculus papillomavirus MmuPV1 resists restriction by human APOBEC3B. J Virol. 2026 Mar 24;100(3):e0192225. doi: 10.1128/jvi.01922-25. Epub 2026 Feb 11. PMID: 41670371; PMCID: PMC13011340.
Like other viruses, papilloma viruses can be eliminated by host immune systems, whether innate or adaptive. Immune control of human papillomavirus infection has been difficult to study in genetically manipulable animals such as mice, because papillomavirus infection is species specific. Using a newly discovered mouse papilloma virus, in a collaboration spearheaded by a group from University of Texas, San Antonio, Dr. Lambert and team have shown that one of the tools that this virus uses to allow effective propagation is to resist the first line restriction by the antiviral enzyme APOBEC3B. This discovery gives insight into how these infections persist.
Mitchell OD, Sneider AP, Gilliam K, Gaudio DD, Gaduraju M, Das S, Hathaway F, Bryan DS, Tawde S, Galasinski S, Novembre J, Prince AER, Churpek JE, Kindler HL, Drazer MW. Germline genetic testing and privacy concerns in patients with mesothelioma. Genet Med. 2026 Mar 4:102550. doi: 10.1016/j.gim.2026.102550. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41795597.
One of the affiliate McArdle faculty, Dr. Jane Churpek (MD), is part of a mid-western cooperative group studying the biology, including rare germline genetic risk factors, and treatment of mesothelioma. This paper discusses patient hesitancy to pursue germline genetic testing, due to fears especially regarding impacts on legal claims. This is despite potential benefits to understanding prognosis and treatment options for their mesothelioma, and for cancer prevention for at-risk family members.
Sam DK, Grems G, Audhya A, Weaver BA. Mad1 facilitates α5 integrin trafficking from the Golgi to promote abscission during cytokinesis. Nat Commun. 2026 Mar 30. doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-70928-9. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41912567.
The components of the dynamic super-complex responsible for correct chromosome segregation during mitosis have been dissected in detail, given that the process of cell division is aberrant and dysregulated in tumors. This paper, led by McArdle affiliate Dr. Beth Weaver, shows that one of the key components that connects chromosomes to the mitotic spindle, Mad1, has a surprising moonlighting role in the transport and cell surface placement of the α5 integrin, which enables tensional stress to promote the separation of daughter cells.
Deming DA., Kraus SG, Brand J, Johnson KA, Abbott D, Kratz J, Turk AA, Emmerich P, Carchman E, Lubner SJ, LoConte NK, Uboha NV, Chaudhuri S, Shah R, Field A, Field E, Pasch CA, Kim DH, Weber S, Heise C, Lawson E, Sanger C, Matkowskyj, K, Asimakopoulos F, Eickhoff J, Dinh HQ and Bassetti MF (2026). Tumor matrix proteoglycan accumulation and processing alter T cell effector function and the response to immunotherapy in patients with oligometastatic colorectal cancer. Clin Cancer Res. Mar 24. doi/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-25-2780. PMID: 41671077
The extracellular matrix of tumors can determine not only the sensitivity of tumor cells to chemotherapy, but even the accessibility of tumor cells to the immune cells that will kill them. In this study, one specific matrix component, versican, together with a proteolyzed fragment derived from this protein, was associated with outcomes of patients with advanced colorectal cancer. When this protein was present, T cells were excluded; when it was proteolyzed, T cells could enter the tumor mass and become activated by immunotherapy, helping clinicians understand which patients would respond well to therapy. This study was performed by teams from the labs of Dr. Huy Dinh (PhD) and Dr. Dusty Deming (MD), and clinical faculty from across the UW CCC.
Alexander CM. A Surprising Molecule Not Required for Fatty Acid Handling by Adipocytes. Acta Physiol (Oxf). 2026 Mar;242(3):e70178. doi: 10.1111/apha.70178. PMID: 41714289.
Metabolic factors control the rate of tumor development, and metabolic intervention could provide a powerful means of cancer prevention. This short perspective, written by Dr. Alexander, highlights the results of a study of a central molecule in fatty acid handling, which had a surprising result.