Department of Biomedical Engineering faculty member team receives MPI-R01 grant

The National Institutes of Health awarded the team of Drs. Young Hwan Chang, Melissa Wong and Summer Gibbs a collaborative multi-PI National Institute of Cancer grant to leverage computation and chemical biologic analyses of a novel neoplastic cell population within primary tumors and circulation to identify hallmarks that predict metastatic risk of disease. A single cell approach to defining cells with high potential to disseminate and seed metastatic sites integrating phenotypic imaging and genomic analyses will provide insight into the biology of disseminated cells. The study impacts patients with colorectal cancer, which remains a leading cause of death, with over 90% of patients succumbing to metastatic disease.