Research Knowledgebase

Breast Cancer Program

Program Leader(s)

For a list of all the program participants and related research, click here.

Description of Program

The multidisciplinary team of investigators within the new Breast Cancer Program conducts innovative research to advance knowledge of the causes of breast cancer and to develop new means of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. In addition to uniting a breast cancer care team at the cutting edge of clinical research, researchers in the program collaborate closely with the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute in building programs in biobehavioral, epidemiology, genetics, molecular biology, and experimental therapeutic research related to breast cancer. More effective treatment, and ultimately, the prevention of breast cancer, will come from the integration of molecular mechanistic, experimental therapeutic, and population sciences research with clinical care.

Goals of Program

The ultimate goal of the Breast Cancer Program is to improve survival rates and decrease morbidity and mortality for breast cancer patients by improving therapeutic options and fostering the translation of scientific inquiry in focused molecular biologic areas. Specific program research goals include:

• To delineate molecular pathways underlying breast cancer development and progression
• To develop new models for the study of breast cancers
• To identify and validate novel therapeutic targets and bring these to clinical trials for patient care

To achieve these goals, investigators in the program will undertake the following efforts:

• Investigation of the signal transduction pathways responsible for breast cancer cell proliferation, morphology and metastasis leading to the identification and validation of novel molecular markers
• Discovery, development and design of biological and experimental drug therapies that will aid in treating anti-estrogen resistant breast cancer
• To bridge molecular discoveries from the bench to the clinic by fostering the translation of molecular strategies into early phase I and II clinical trials
• To improve prognostication of and to develop better therapeutic options for breast cancer patients

Participants

Lisa Baumbach-Reardon, Ph.D.
Kerry L. Burnstein, Ph.D.
Kermit L. Carraway, Ph.D.
Jennifer L. Clarke, Ph.D.
Judith DeLeo Hurley, M.D.
Gennaro D'Urso, Ph.D.
Dorraya El-Ashry, Ph.D.
Sharon Elliot, Ph.D.
Amjad Farooq, Ph.D.
Thomas K. Harris, Ph.D.
Ralf Landgraf, Ph.D.
Suzanne C. Lechner, Ph.D.
Marc Lippman, M.D.
Balakrishna L. Lokeshwar, Ph.D.
Zafar Nawaz, Ph.D.
Pearl Seo, M.D.
Seung-Uon Shin, Ph.D.
Fiona Simpkins, M.D.
Elizabeth Smith, Ph.D.
Marta Torroella-Kouri, Ph.D.
Fulvia Verde, Ph.D.
Keith A. Webster, Ph.D.
Xiang-Xi (Mike) Xu, Ph.D.


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