Shiri Gur-Cohen, PhD

University of California, San Diego
$100,000 Tower Career Development Grant

Research Title:
Identify Lymphatic Niche Drivers of Oncogenic Tissue Remodeling and Tumorigenesis

 

All forms of cancer begin with genetic alterations in otherwise healthy stem cells. Yet, these alone are insufficient to predict when a person might develop the disease or how severe it might be. This raises the possibility that nongenetic events within the tumor ecosystem play a role in unleashing tumorigenesis. The goal of this proposal is to determine how the lymphatic system shapes the stem cell oncogenic landscape throughout cancer initiation and progression. We found that tumor-initiating stem cells rely on their connections with lymphatic vessels, typically considered as the waste drains of the body. Using a model of skin cancer, we are proposing a new tool to track cancer cells in their natural habitat to find how lymphatic vessels shield cancer cells and aid their spread to other parts of the body. A successful outcome of our studies holds promise for the development of therapeutics that block early cancer progression and pave the way to combat advanced metastatic disease.

Dr. Gur-Cohen is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Regenerative Medicine at the University of California San Diego. Dr. Gur-Cohen’s work unearths the lymphatic vascular network as a novel stem cell niche component, and her multidisciplinary strategy has advanced our knowledge of how stem cells synchronize and coordinate tissue regeneration.

Dr. Gur-Cohen completed her postdoc training with Dr. Elaine Fuchs at The Rockefeller University in New York and earned her Ph.D. in the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Dr. Gur-Cohen has received several awards and prizes for her work, including the prestigious TRI-I Breakthrough Prize for Junior Investigators, the HFSP and EMBO awards, the Revson-Weizmann Award for Advancing Women in Science and the Helen and Martin Kimmel Stem Cell Award.

Dr. Gur-Cohen’s laboratory is innovating to develop new experimental tools and provide molecular understanding to probe the dedicated mechanisms involved in establishing a vascular niche that expands stem-cell-fate determinations and sets the stage for tumor formation and metastasis.