Metastasis is responsible for most of cancer deaths. The mission of our laboratory is to apply modern molecular biology, genomics, and computational biology approaches to understand the molecular basis of cancer metastasis. Major areas of research in our laboratory includes: identification and functional characterization of metastasis genes, pre-clinical evaluation of anti-metastasis therapeutics, development of advanced imaging technology and non-invasive detection of tumor-stroma interaction during metastasis, the role of miRNA in cancer progression and metastasis, molecular characterization of mammary gland stem cells and their link to breast tumor stem cells.
Research in our laboratory is funded by grants from federal agencies, private foundations and alumni donors, including the Brewster Foundation, Champalimaud Foundation, Department of Defense, the National Institute of Health, the American Cancer Society, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Breast Cancer Alliance, the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research, the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology, Amgen, Merck and Johnson & Johnson.