MD-PhD Trainee B.S University of California, Davis Basal-like breast cancer (BLBC) is an aggressive breast cancer subtype for which there is currently no effective targeted treatment. Our lab previously identified the transcriptional repressor Slug is frequently overexpressed in BLBC, and Slug is an important regulator of luminal differentiation. I carried out a chemical screen to […]
Associate Professor of Developmental, Molecular & Chemical Biology Tufts University School of Medicine Investigator Molecular Oncology Research Institute (MORI) Tufts Medical Center Dr. Charlotte Kuperwasser is the Director of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Convergence Laboratory at Tufts University School of Medicine. She is an Associate Professor Developmental, Molecular & Chemical Biology and an investigator […]
Identifying the cellular origins of breast cancer might lead to earlier diagnosis and more efficient management of the disease. Research conducted by the Convergence lab determined that common forms of breast cancer originate from breast cells known as luminal epithelial cells while rarer forms of breast cancer, such as metaplastic carcinomas, originate from basal epithelial […]
Recent work from the Kuperwasser Lab has shown that the differentiation state of the cell-of-origin determines the type of cancer will eventually form. Other recent findings have also provided strong molecular evidence supporting the concept that haploinsufficiency for genes in may be associated with features of malignancy. Using these insights, Kuperwasser Lab is employing various genomic, […]
A major effort in the Kuperwasser Lab is to define the cellular precursors to human breast cancers and uncover how mutations or stable epigenetic changes sustained in these cells affect cell fate decisions and cellular plasticity to create heterogeneous tumor phenotypes. Efforts have been focused on uncovering the transcriptional mediators for somatic cell plasticity including […]
The Kuperwasser Lab is working towards identifying and understanding how normal breast stem cells, as well as breast cancer stem cells interact with the host cells during cancer formation, expansion and metastasis. Currently the lab is defining how stromal rigidity due to fibroblast activation affects the recruitment and stimulation of immune cells, which likely participate in […]
