Research Focus

The goal of our laboratory is to reduce the death and suffering caused by prostate cancer. Cancer localized to the prostate is often curable with treatments such as surgery or radiation therapy; however, once prostate cancer has spread beyond the prostate to other organs or to bone, it is an incurable disease. Our lab focuses on identifying both cancer cell-intrinsic and tumor microenvironmental factors that promote lethal prostate cancer and cause therapy resistance.  We identified SPARCL1 as a gene down-regulated in high-grade and metastatic prostate cancer that is a significant, independent prognostic marker of disease progression to metastases.  SPARCL1 is a secreted extracellular matrix protein that restricts cellular adhesion, migration, and invasion. Our work also focuses on another secreted protein, Asporin, which is expressed by cancer associated fibroblasts. Increased Asporin expression is associated with worse outcomes. Our findings support that Asporin broadly impacts many cell types in the tumor microenvironment. Our lab is also interested in the utility of tumor specific genetic alterations detected in the blood as predictors of therapy resistance.   
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Recent Lab Research

Mechanisms of Metastasis

Mediators of Therapy Resistance

Tumor Microenvironment