Tumor biology includes research groups working on aspects of cell biology, stem cells, transcriptional regulation and protein structure relevant to cell growth regulation, differentiation and cancer. McArdle faculty with research interests focused on these areas of tumor biology are: Drs. Elaine Alarid, Caroline Alexander, Christopher Bradfield, Dustin Deming, William Fahl, Shigeki Miyamoto, Yongna Xing, Wei Xu, and Jing Zhang. Current areas of research include:
- Roles of estrogen receptors, estrogen-related receptors and post-transcriptional mechanisms of estrogen receptor in breast cancer.
- Oncogenic pathways and modifiers of breast cancer cell behavior including TGFβ, the RNA binding protein CRD-BP, Ras, neu, and Wnt signaling.
- Structural biology of protein phosphatase 2A and other molecular targets in cancer cells.
- Roles of hematopoietic stem cells and Ras signaling in mouse models of leukemia.
- Effects of carcinogen exposure and the aryl hydrocarbon receptor.
- Development of chemoprotective molecules for alleviating side-effects of chemotherapy.
- Defining new approaches to targeting estrogen receptor in recurrent, metastatic breast cancer.
- Lipid metobolism/deposition in the skin and its role in cancer and meta “bolic homeostasis”.
- Studies of NFkappaB signaling in cancer and immunology.
- Use of 3-dimensional cultures to test patient’s tumor’s response to targeted therapy– a new pathway to precision medicine.
