The Ford Lab is interested in the parallels between normal development and tumorigenesis, and is studying how developmental transcription factors are utilized by tumor cells to promote early embryonic processes in the context of cancer, processes that enable tumor progression and metastasis. In addition to studying how developmental transcription factors influence the cancer cells themselves, our lab also examines how the immune microenvironment is influenced by re-expression of developmental proteins in cancer cells. The lab focuses on breast cancer and several pediatric cancers, including medulloblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and Ewing sarcoma. Models used include mouse and zebrafish.