Stephen Skapek

The major theme is my laboratory is that cancer can be viewed, in part, as a developmental disease. To be sure, many of the essential “hallmarks” of cancer – such as the capacity to migrate throughout the body, survive in stressful situations, and promote new blood vessel growth – represent developmental programs that have seemingly been co-opted by the malignant cell. Further, many types of tumor cells seem to represent cells that have become “arrested” at a particular phase of cell lineage development. In some situations, this apparent blockade in differentiation allows cells to continue to proliferate – another of the essential hallmarks of cancer. Interestingly, higher organisms are endowed with certain genes that act to block cancer formation. These so-called tumor suppressor genes act in a variety of ways to impede aspects of cancer development. In my laboratory, we are exploring how certain, key tumor suppressor genes promote critical aspects of cellular or organism development with ultimate goal of developing novel therapies based on the understanding of the developmental functions of the tumor suppressor genes. To accomplish our goals, we take advantage of a wide variety of molecular and cell biology tools and histological techniques with cell culture-based systems, mouse models and human tissue samples.

The major theme is my laboratory is that cancer can be viewed, in part, as a developmental disease. To be sure, many of the essential “hallmarks” of cancer – such as the capacity to migrate throughout the body, survive in stressful situations, and promote new blood vessel growth – represent developmental programs that have seemingly been co-opted by the malignant cell. Further, many types of tumor cells seem to represent cells that have become “arrested” at a particular phase of cell lineage development. In some situations, this apparent blockade in differentiation allows cells to continue to proliferate – another of the essential hallmarks of cancer. Interestingly, higher organisms are endowed with certain genes that act to block cancer formation. These so-called tumor suppressor genes act in a variety of ways to impede aspects of cancer development. In my laboratory, we are exploring how certain, key tumor suppressor genes promote critical aspects of cellular or organism development with ultimate goal of developing novel therapies based on the understanding of the developmental functions of the tumor suppressor genes. To accomplish our goals, we take advantage of a wide variety of molecular and cell biology tools and histological techniques with cell culture-based systems, mouse models and human tissue samples.