PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Biology
UNC-Chapel Hill
Cancer Cell Biology Research Program
Area of Interest
Cells must be able to sense neighboring cells and the surrounding environment to organize into tissues and organs in the mammalian body. In our lab we investigate how cells sense and communicate with adjacent cells. In particular, we study how cell adhesion and signaling pathways are intertwined in normal tissue development and how these pathways are altered in diseases such as cancer.
We use a combination of 3D cell culture, digital spatial transcriptomics and mammalian cell culture to study how cell polarity and adhesion proteins regulate tissue organization and tumor progression.
We concentrate on the epithelium of the endometrium in the female reproductive tract and have shown that proteins of the junctional polarity complex, including the tumor suppressor protein Merlin and the polarity protein Par3, are critical regulators of endometrial gland development and are disrupted in endometrial cancer. We have also used digital spatial transcriptomics to demonstrate the tumor heterogeneity in human endometrial tumors with mutations in the gene encoding the adhesion and signaling protein b-catenin. We are currently investigating how specific mutations in endometrial epithelial cells promote changes in cell differentiation and organization that lead to neoplasia development and how these changes can also manipulate the tumor microenvironment to evade treatment.
