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Rachel Willand-Charnley

The overall objective of the Willand-Charnley Lab is to generate interdisciplinary solutions to biological problems facing society synergistically through the lab’s organic chemistry and glyco-cancer immunology research programs. The group’s glyco-cancer immunology investigations inform synthetic targets for glycan therapeutics producing innovative synthetic methods and materials to evaluate their effectiveness against important cancers. The labs intersection of organic chemistry and biology allows the unique advantage of identifying promising therapeutic targets, synthesis of therapeutics in house, and testing of their effectiveness.

The Tao Lab focuses on understanding the basic mechanisms underlying pathophysiological osteoblast function to effectively treat skeletal diseases like inborn osteosclerosis and osteosarcoma as well as to guide therapies like bone regeneration. Skeletal NOTCH proteins regulate embryogenesis and play a critical role in osteoblast function and in skeletal development and homeostasis. Pathological notch signaling has emerged as a critical disease-mechanism for skeletal diseases. The lab’s main goal is to dissect molecular mechanisms underlying NOTCH-related skeletal diseases, particularly within the setting of pathological osteoblast functions.

The research in this laboratory is to study the basic mechanisms that define cellular identity, and how identity may be altered during disease progression. In particular, we are currently investigating the mechanisms that “stem cell” genes play in the formation of multiple pediatric and adult tumors. We explore these foundational questions by the use of mouse genetics, tissue and 3D organoid culture, and molecular biology techniques combined with next generation genomic and bioinformatic analysis with a long-term goal of generating novel therapeutics to treat some of the most devastating diseases that afflict people worldwide.

The Vermeer Lab focuses on defining mechanisms of metastasis and identifying novel targets for therapeutic intervention. Recent work from the Vermeer lab shows that tumors release small vesicles called exosomes that induce tumor innervation. Patients with densely innervated tumors suffer with increased rates of metastasis. Now that we have identified a mechanism driving tumor innervation, the Vermeer Lab is currently focused on developing ways to block it. The lab studies many different types of solid tumors to better understand at the molecular level why some tumors are more innervated than others. The goal is to define key signatures that result in densely innervated tumors and develop therapies to block this effect.

The de la Puente Lab develops translational and physiologically relevant preclinical cancer models as tools to recapitulate tumor behavior ex vivo (“out of the living”) with an emphasis in cellular crosstalk, extracellular matrix remodeling, and spatial gradients. We focus on elucidating mechanisms driving chemoresistance and immune evasion in women’s cancer and further developing novel treatment strategies to mitigate their occurrence. Our long-term goal is to accelerate and directly translate our significant insights to aid women suffering from cancer.

The Khurshid Lab investigates differential alternative splicing in tumors compared to control tissues, focusing on how metabolic starvation and other factors within the tumor microenvironment influence the splicing of various genes. The lab’s researchers are also interested in understanding how RNA-binding proteins respond to these stress conditions and are modified to drive tumorigenesis. The Khurshid Lab’s long-term goal is to enhance the understanding of alternative splicing in cancer and use this information to tackle tumors that are recurrent, therapy-resistant and/or metastatic.