Welcome
The overarching mission of the OHSU Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology is to advance the understanding of problems relevant to human health and disease. To accomplish this mission, research groups in the department have historically focused on questions regarding cell structure, organelles, life cycle, differentiation, and regulated communication between cells and extracellular signals and cues. An ultimate application of knowledge gained from these studies has been to understand important cell physiologic processes that effect human biology. These issues directly link to problems of interest to developmental biologists, including molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating tissue morphogenesis, tissue polarity and patterning. Read full welcome message here.
Featured Stories
Dr. Missy Wong has been appointment as the Knight Cancer Institute's associate director of basic science. She steps into this role formerly held by Dr. Lisa Coussens who was named a co-deputy director in the KCI. After conducting a national search for this position, the search committee selected Dr. Wong from a strong slate of internal and external candidates. Missy has been at OHSU and a member of the Knight Cancer Institute for over 20 years. She currently serves as vice chair for the Department of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology in the OHSU School of Medicine, and has served as co-leader of the Cancer Biology Program for three competitive renewals of the KCI P30 grant from the National Cancer Institute, with three different co-leaders. Missy’s accomplishments as a scientist are well-recognized, particularly her laboratory’s research on the physiologic impact of cell fusion hybrids between circulating bone marrow-derived and intestinal tumor epithelial cells in advancing tumorigenesis.
Her history of collaborative team science and mentoring are notable, and her commitment to Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) and DEI add to our confidence in her success in this next chapter of her scientific leadership. In this new role, she will collaborate with Dr. Coussens, as well as Dr. Eneida Nemecek, associate director of clinical research, and Dr. Shelley Tworoger, associate director of population science, to guide the development of innovative policies and programs to further discovery-based science across all four research programs.
Dr. Sanjay Malhotra co-organized the 2024 Stanford Drug Discovery Symposium, an annual event that Dr. Malhotra co-founded in 2016. Notable attendees were a Nobel laureate, the FDA commissioner and leaders of large pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
Dr. Teresa Zimmers successfully co-organized the recent Keystone Symposia Cachexia and Wasting Syndrome in Cancer and Chronic Diseases. It was held at the Buck Institute in Novato, CA from May 5-7. Congratulations on a successful symposia and for engaging many new labs and investigators!
Dr. Lisa Coussens elected to the National Academy of Medicine
Lisa Coussens, Ph.D., Professor and Chairwoman of CDCB, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine for her groundbreaking work in cancer research. This honor places Dr. Coussens among only two other OHSU faculty members who are members of both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.
She joins 99 other newly elected members this year, including fellow OHSU faculty member Dr. David Huang. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors a scientist or clinician can receive in health and medicine, and “recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.”
Recent Accolades & Funding
Congratulations to Dr. Brittany Counts, postdoc in the Zimmers lab, who has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in the Integrated Training in Quantitative and Experimental Cancer Systems Biology T32 training program.
Dr. Aaron Grossberg presented a lecture, "IL-6 induces early cachexia via hepatic STAT-3,” and co-chaired a session on the neural control of cachexia at the 17th International Conference of the Society on Sarcopenia, Cachexia, & Wasting Disorders this past December in Washington, DC. Congratulations!
Dr. Megan Burger and her lab have been awarded a Knight Pilot grant toward their new collaboration with Gaurav Sahar's lab entitled, “A novel mRNA lipid nanoparticle platform for lung cancer neoantigen vaccines”. Congratulations!
Congratulations to Sephora Jean, graduate student in the Zimmers lab, who has been accepted to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's Innovators Symposium in the Cancer Biology track coming up in February 2025.
Congratulations to Dr. Molly Thomas who is the recipient of a Kuni Foundation grant with co-PI Dr. Deanne Tibbitts (DOS) for their project, "Improving Cancer Immune Therapy by Understanding Its Achilles’ Heel: Gastrointestinal Toxicities."
Dr. Julia Maxson has been awarded funding from the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation for her project, "Targeting oncogenic transcriptional programs in juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia." Congratulations!
Recent Publications
Congratulations to Nicole Giske (Nick Smith, Sid Sengupta and the rest of the Wong lab team) for the acceptance of their manuscript titled, “Dual states of Bmi1-expressing intestinal stem cells drive epithelial development mediated by non-canonical Wnt signaling” in Developmental Cell. This is a collaborative project with Guanming Wu’s and Jared Fischer’s groups—and includes our summer intern.
Dr. Lucie Darmusey, postdoc in the Maxson lab, has had a paper accepted in Blood Advances titled, "Dual ASXL1 and CSF3R mutations drive myeloid biased stem cell expansion and enhance neutrophil differentiation." Congratulations!
Two publications have recently come out of the Grossberg lab - congratulations!
- "GDF15 and LCN2 for early detection and prognosis of pancreatic cancer" in ClinicalKey.
- "Melanocortin-4 receptor antagonist TCMCB07 alleviates chemotherapy-induced anorexia and weight loss in rats" in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Congratulations to Dr. Amy Moran and her lab who have published with colleagues, "Androgen receptor inhibition increases MHC Class I expression and improves immune response in prostate cancer" in Cancer Discovery.
Congratulations to Dr. Molly Thomas who recently published her first co-senior author paper, "Immune responses in checkpoint myocarditis across heart, blood and tumour" in Nature. Read more about the paper in a press release from the Broad Institute.
Dr. Jonathan Brody in collaboration with colleague Dr. Jordan Winter (Case Western) have published, "A Surgeon-Scientist's Pursuit of the Elusive R01" in the Journal of Surgical Research.
View all CDCB news and recognitions.
Respect For All Flowchart
CDCB labs recruiting
Careers with an emphasis on preclinical and translational science
CDCB welcomes
CDCB is excited to welcome Angelina Vaseva, Ph.D. who has joined OHSU as an Assistant Professor with a primary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics and a joint appointment with us in the Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology. Dr. Vaseva's research program will focus on targeting oncogenic RAS in pediatric cancers. Welcome, Dr. Vaseva!
CDCB is pleased to announce that Molly Thomas, M.D., Ph.D., will be joining us as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology, with a joint appointment in the Division of Gastroenterology. Dr. Thomas is an inflammatory bowel disease specialist and mucosal immunologist. Her lab will focus on understanding gastrointestinal and hepatic complications of immune checkpoint blockade and how these immune related adverse events inform our understanding of tissue-resident memory T cells in these organ systems. Welcome, Dr. Thomas!
CDCB is please to welcome Joshua Moreau, Ph.D., who will be joining us as a joint faculty along with the Division of Oncological Sciences, Department of Dermatology, and a member of CEDAR. He aims to explore the earliest interactions between cancer and the immune system, within the tissues where cancer cells arise. Welcome, Dr. Moreau!