The Graduate Program in Cancer Cell Biology offers interdisciplinary biomedical research training leading to the Ph.D. and M.D./Ph.D. degrees. Research is focused on the molecular basis of cancer etiology, progression, and translational applications.
Duration:
Is Cancer Cell Biology right for you?
Research interests include biochemical, molecular, and cellular basis of cancer origin and progression. Current research areas include the following:
- Tumor Microenvironment: Tumor cell resistance to anoikis, effects of microenvironment on dormancy, stem cell regulation, leukemia/stromal interactions.
- Mechanisms of Metastasis: Role of proteases in cell motility, signaling pathways in invasion and metastasis, imaging of metastasis in animal models.
- Genetic Regulation of Cancer: Tumor suppressor genes and transcriptional regulation, post-translational modifications in transcriptional regulation, miRNA regulatory pathways in progression, epigenetics, HPV-driven cancers.
- Nanotechnology and Cancer: Effects of nanoparticles on signal transduction pathways governing cancer growth and progression.
- Signal Transduction in Cancer: Receptor tyrosine kinase signaling in cancer growth and metastasis, non-receptor tyrosine kinases in cell adhesion and proliferation, ROS in tumor progression.
- Cancer Bioinformatics: Biomarker classification in cancer, predictive models of carcinogenesis, secondary analysis of existing databases.
- Systems Biology in Cancer: Modeling signaling nodes in breast cancer, oncogenic pathway analysis.
- Cancer Disparities in Appalachia: Biological models of Appalachian disparities, prevention and control, cancer registry analysis.
- Cancer Therapeutics: High-throughput screening and novel drug discovery, applications and formulations, pre-clinical evaluation in animal models, immunotherapy.
We are one of 50 institutions recognized by the National Cancer Biology Training Consortium(CABTRAC).
