The “Hippo” biochemical pathway is thought to regulate organ growth, bringing cell division to a halt once organs have reached maturation. One of the defining characteristics of cancer is rapid, unchecked cell growth. Camargo leads an investigation into the promise of Hippo signaling and its possible role in suppressing cancer cell growth or providing model and material for new cancer therapies.

Using an innovative model to generate neural crest stem cells in the laboratory, this project is examining how expression of EWS-FLI1, an abnormal gene found in Ewing’s sarcomas, affects the epigenetic state in these neural crest stem cells and initiates tumor formation.

Tailoring a type of molecule that is naturally attracted to cancer cells with an anticancer payload, Levy is working to minimize the toxic collateral damage inflicted on healthy tissue and cells by conventional cancer treatment methods. The innovation of a precise, self-delivering agent would greatly diminish commonly harsh side effects, representing a leap forward for cancer patients in treatment.

This team concentrates on the BCL6 protein—how it influences leukemia at onset and relapse, the protein’s relationship to leukemia stem cells, and preliminary development of a new BCL6 inhibitor capable of eliminating dormant leukemia stem cells.

The uncontrolled cell growth that is a common characteristic of cancer is often compared to a broken switch. This is sometimes the case with the tyrosine kinases (TK), a class of molecular switches controlling cell growth, which can cause cancer when altered, sometimes as a result of fusion with cellular protein. Pao is leading a search for 100 such fusions in lung and breast cancers in order to offer fresh therapeutic targets, basing his study on the model of Gleevec, the highly effective drug that targets a specific alteration in leukemia.

Roberts is using a model system of his own design to examine epigenetic pathways in pursuit of therapies that can reverse the nonpermanent epigenetic effects of losing the SNF5 gene. The loss affects DNA packaging and often results in an extremely lethal pediatric cancer primarily affecting children under 2 years old. Discovery of a method of reversal would translate to hope for these young patients and have far-reaching implications for almost every type of cancer.

This project is identifying small molecules that regulate the “Hedgehog” signaling pathway, which drives the development of a large number of childhood and adult cancers. Rohatgi’s integrative approach uses tools from cell biology and chemistry to find the influential molecules and offer new hope in the treatment of a variety of cancers.

The goal of this project is to open up a new frontier of targeted therapy development by identifying specific gene functions that only serve the existence of cancer cells, with no benefit to normal cells and healthy tissue.

This project targets the EWS-FLI protein, the “undruggable” cancer-promoting protein in Ewing’s sarcoma, screening a library of chemicals for those that deactivate the EWS-FLI protein to identify potential anticancer drugs.

This project is developing a new approach to profiling tumors by capturing and examining “microparticles,” tiny genetic material-containing packets that are emitted by cells in the tumor tissue and circulate in the blood.

This project brings together multiple fields—chemistry, biology, and cancer drug development—to deploy a technology that can rapidly and precisely identify cancer-causing proteins and their malignant interaction sites.

This project uses a novel system that identifies the molecular abnormalities that drive cancer formation and growth directly from patient tumors, aiming to make the molecular profiling process faster, more efficient, and more precise.

The goal of this project is to demonstrate how the human Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which infects 90 percent of the world population, contributes to cell survival and cell division in ways that can sometimes lead to cancer.