Welcome to the Perou Lab

Human carcinomas show significant variation in their morphologies, clinical histories and responsiveness to therapy. This wide tumor heterogeneity poses a significant challenge for the effective treatment of cancer patients. The focus of my lab is to characterize the biology of human tumor subtypes using genomics, genetics, and cell biology, and then to use this information to develop improved treatments that are specific to each subtype and for each patient. A significant contribution of ours towards the goal of personalized medicine has been in the genomic characterization of human breast tumors, which identified the Intrinsic Subtypes of Breast Cancer. These Intrinsic Subtypes are predictive of relapse-free survival, overall survival and responsiveness to chemotherapy and some molecularly targeted agents.

We study many human solid tumor disease types using multiple experimental approaches including RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq), single cell approaches, DNA exome and Whole Genome Sequencing, cell/tissue culturing, and spatial transcriptomics, with a particular focus on the Basal-like/Triple Negative Breast Cancer subtype. In addition, we are mimicking these human tumor alterations in multiple model systems and then using these models and human tumor specimens to investigate the efficacy of new drugs and new drug combinations. All of these genomic and genetic studies generate large volumes of data; thus, a significant portion of my lab is devoted to using genomic data and a systems biology approach to create computational predictors of complex cancer phenotypes, which will ultimately be applied in the clinic.

My lab utilizes a multi-disciplinary team spanning cancer biology, genomics, genetics, bioinformatics, statistics, systems biology, and clinical trials of cancer patients. In addition to our experimental approaches, we are also developing novel computational tools and specific algorithms that will predict patient survival and complex phenotypes including tumor responsiveness to a variety of novel drugs. Some of our assays are already used in the clinic and we have more in development. I am actively seeking new graduate students, medical fellows, and postdocs and have opportunities available for both experimental and computational scientists.