Cancer Biology

About

cancer cellResearch in Cancer Biology at UVA focuses on cutting-edge basic, translational, and clinical research in a highly collaborative environment.  Our research is significantly enhanced by being part of an NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center whose mission is in part to discover the fundamental causes of cancer and develop new knowledge into tools for cancer treatment, diagnosis, and prevention. For over 35 years the University of Virginia Cancer Training Program has been preparing students for productive careers in academia, industry and education.  Students pursue research under world-renowned faculty in areas such as cancer cell signaling, genetics and epigenetics, chemical and structural biology, immunology and immunotherapy, inflammation and cancer, and interactions between tumor cells and non-transformed stromal components of the tumor microenvironment.

Integration of student training with the UVA NCI-designated Cancer Center provides an exceptional opportunity to prepare students for leadership roles in all aspects of cancer research and to ultimately shape the future of this rapidly expanding area of biomedical research.  Students work closely with research teams in women’s oncology, lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, hematopoietic malignancies and stem cell research.  This research is augmented by state-of-the-art research and clinical facilities that deliver new and innovative therapies to patients.

Faculty

  • Abbas, Tarek A.

    The Ubiquitin System and Human Cancer

  • Abounader, Roger

    Basic and translational brain tumor research

  • Ai, Huiwang

    Molecular Biosensors; Spatiotemporal Regulation of Biological Signaling; Protein Engineering for Imaging, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics

  • Bauer, Todd

    Tumor cell migration, invasion, metastasis, growth factor signalling

  • Bekiranov, Stefan

    Physical Modeling of Microarray Hybridization; Analysis of Genomic Tiling Array Data; Bioinformatics; Computational Biology; Regulatory Networks

  • Bielinsky, Anja Katrin

    Genome instability syndromes in cancer and immune deficiencies

  • Bouton, Amy H.

    Signaling Pathways and Breast Cancer

  • Bullock, Timothy N.

    Pathways to enhance T cell function in tumors.

  • Bushweller, John H.

    Drug Development Targeting Transcription Drivers in Cancer; Structure/Function Studies of Transcription Factor Drivers in Cancer

  • Caliari, Steven

    Engineering biomaterials as cellular microenvironments

  • Casanova, James E.

    Role of Arf family GTPases in vesicular transport and cytoskeleton assembly.
    Cell Biology of bacterial pathogenesis.
    The innate immune response to bacterial infection.

  • Chalfant, Charles Edward

    Hematology and Oncology, Cell Biology, Lipid Signaling, Cancer Cell Signaling, and RNA Biology

  • Cross, Janet V.

    Contribution of the Inflammatory Microenvironment to Tumor Initiation, Progression and Metastasis; Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer Chemoprevention

  • Dolatshahi, Sepideh

    Systems Immunology, Cancer Systems Biology, , Neonatal and Maternal Immunology

  • Dudley, Andrew

    Tumor microenvironment and mechanisms of tumor neovascularization

  • Dwyer, Noelle

    Neural Development; Cell Division in Neural Stem Cells; Axon Outgrowth and Guidance

  • Ebrahim, Seham

    Cytoskeletal architecture, dynamics and roles in cellular physiology and disease; High-resolution live cell and tissue imaging

  • Elliott, Michael R.

    Macrophage effector functions in inflammation and immunotherapy

  • Engelhard, Victor H.

    Identification of MHC-restricted tumor antigens / Control of T cell homing to tumors / Tertiary lymphoid structures and intratumoral immunity

  • Erickson, Loren D.

    Immune mechanisms of pathogenic antibody production in allergy and autoimmunity

  • Fallahi-Sichani, Mohammad

    Cancer systems biology, Single-cell quantitative biology, Computational modeling

  • Fox, Jay W.

    Basement Membrane Structure and Metalloproteinases

  • Garcia-Blanco, Mariano A.

    RNA-protein interactions in antiviral immunity and autoimmune diseases.

  • Garrett-Bakelman, Francine

    Acute Myeloid Leukemia: molecular and cellular biology events which mediate aberrant epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms during disease establishment and progression

  • Gioeli, Daniel

    Signal transduction in cancer cells

  • Goldfarb, Adam N.

    Hematopathology and Understanding the Molecular Basis of Hematopoiesis and Leukemogenesis

  • Guler, Jennifer

    Mechanisms of Genetic and Metabolic Adaptation in the Malaria Parasite, Plasmodium falciparum

  • Halme, Adrian J.

    Regeneration and Systemic Responses to Tissue Damage

  • Hammarskjöld, Marie-Louise

    Post Transcriptional Gene Regulation and the Molecular Biology of Human Retroviruses

  • Harris, Thurl E

    Molecular mechanisms controlling insulin signaling and fat synthesis.

  • Hsu, Ku-Lung

    Chemical Biology, Lipid Biochemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, and Mass Spectrometry

  • Janes, Kevin A.

    Systems-biology approaches to cancer biology and virology.

  • Jiang, Hao

    Regulation of stem cell function and tumorigenesis by epigenetics and biomolecular condensation (phase separation)

  • Kashatus, David F

    The Role of Mitochondrial Fusion and Fission in Tumorigenesis.

  • Kedes, Dean H.

    Human Herpes virus associated with malignancy, including Kaposi's Sarcoma

  • Landen, Charles

    Mechanisms of Chemotherapy Resistance in Ovarian and Other Gynecologic Malignancies

  • Lazo, John S.

    The mechanism of action of small molecules and the fundamental biological role of protein tyrosine phosphatases

  • Lazzara, Matthew

    Cellular Engineering

  • Lee, Kevin S.

    Neuronal Vulnerability: A Study of Cellular Mechanism

  • Li, Hui

    Gene regulation in cancer, RNA processing; Epigenetic modification; Stem cell and development

  • Loughran, Jr., Thomas P

    Hematologic malignancies; bone marrow disorders; leukemia; large granular lymphocyte (LGL)

  • Lu, Xiaowei

    Wnt/PCP signaling in inner ear development Mouse models for human deafness Wnt/PCP signaling in neural tube closure

  • Mandell, James W.

    Identification of Novel Biomarkers for Inflammatory Myopathies

  • Mayo, Marty W.

    Transcriptional Regulation by NFKB

  • Mohi, Golam

    Cell signaling, stem cell biology, molecular and epigenetic mechanisms of blood and breast cancers

  • Moskaluk, Christopher A.

    Molecular pathogenesis and genomic analysis of human cancers

  • Naegle, Kristen

    Regulation and function of tyrosine phosphorylation in complex networks

  • Owens, Gary K.

    Identification of Factors and Mechanisms that Regulate the Stability of Late Stage Atherosclerotic Lesions and the Probability of Thromboembolic Events Including a Heart Attack or Stroke

  • Parichy, David

    Developmental Genetics, Evolution and Regeneration

  • Park, Kwon-Sik

    Mechanisms of tissue/organ homeostasis and tumorigeensis

  • Paschal, Bryce M.

    Nuclear Transport, Signaling, and Cancer

  • Pemberton, Lucy F.

    Nuclear Transport in Chromatin Assembly and Transcriptional Regulation

  • Pompano, Rebecca

    Bioanalytical tools for inflammatory disease

  • Price, Richard J.

    Image Guided Drug and Gene Delivery for Neurodegeneration and Cancer; Focused Ultrasound and Immunotherapy; Arteriogenesis and Angiogenesis

  • Purow, Benjamin W.

    Novel therapeutic approaches to brain cancers and to other neurologic diseases

  • Ratan, Aakrosh

    Genomics, Molecular Evolution, Algorithm Design and Analysis

  • Redemann, Stefanie

    Chromosome segregation and aneuploidy in meiosis and mitosis

  • Rekosh, David M.

    Human Immunodeficiency Virus Gene Expression; Human Endogenous Viruses; SARS-CoV-2 Protein Trafficking; Post-transcriptional Gene Regulation

  • Rutkowski, Melanie

    Influence of commensal microbes on immune homeostasis, anti-tumor immunity, and metastasis

  • Schulman, Ira G.

    Regulation of transcription by nuclear hormone receptors, transcriptional control of metabolism and inflammation, small molecule approaches to drug discovery

  • Sheffield, Nathan

    computational biology & bioinformatics; high performance computing; epigenomics & chromatin; pediatric cancer; computational regulatory genomics; machine learning

  • Sheybani, Natasha

    Biomedical Engineering

  • Sheynkman, Gloria M.

    Proteoform Systems Biology: proteogenomic approaches to uncover the role of proteomic variation in human disease

  • Sontheimer, Harald

    Role of Glia in Neurological Illnesses and Cancer

  • Stukenberg, P. Todd

    Mechanisms of chromosome segregation in Mitosis and generation of Chromosomal Instability in tumors

  • Swami, Nathan

    Molecular and bioelectric devices; tissue regeneration.

  • Tao, Jianguo

    Pathology

  • Trinh, Bon Q

    Understanding Protein and RNA regulations of gene expression via chromatin structure in myeloid cell development and diseases

  • Vande Pol, Scott B.

    How Viruses, Particularly Papillomaviruses, Can Cause Cancer

  • Wang, Yuh-Hwa

    Genome instability in cancer and repeat expansion diseases

  • Wotton, David

    Regulation of Gene Expression, Development and Tumor Progression by TGF beta Signaling

  • Zang, Chongzhi

    Bioinformatics methodology development; Epigenetics and chromatin biology; Transcriptional regulation; Cancer genomics and epigenomics; Statistical methods for biomedical data integration; Advanced machine learning; Theoretical and computational biophysic

  • Zeichner, Steven L.

    Pathogenesis of infectious diseases and the development of new therapies and vaccines for infectious diseases and cancers.

  • Zhang, Tian

    Biochemistry

  • Zimmer, Jochen

    Transport of biopolymers across biological membranes with a particular interest in polysaccharide and protein translocation.

  • Zong, Hui

    Early detection, cancer prevention, and tumor microenvironment

  • Zunder, Eli

    Single Cell Analysis