Visualizing and manipulating cancer cell behavior

What factors in the environment dictate whether a cell migrates, dies, divides, or survives? What signals regulate this cellular decision-making, and how are those signals interpreted into a downstream cell biological response? Our lab uses a combination of in vivo and in vitro approaches to answer these critical questions in development and disease models, with the goal of fundamentally understanding interactions between cells and their environment, and applying these discoveries toward the development of therapeutic approaches in cancer.