The Ford Lab studies the parallels between normal development and tumorigenesis/tumor progression. We focus on understanding 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 cancers, brain cancers (both the pediatric cancer, medulloblastoma, and the highly aggressive adult cancer, glioblastoma), as well as pediatric sarcomas ( rhabdomyosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma). Models used include mouse and zebrafish.
|
|
Brock, Sheera, and Connor look over some of his new data.
|
Emelia at work in the hood.
|