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Scripps Research Joint Appointments

Department of Molecular Biology
Faculty, Kellogg School of Science and Technology

Research Focus

The Physics and Mathematics of Cancer Metastasis: http://cancer.scripps.edu

Early detection of cancer and monitoring of cancer therapy are critical in increasing the chances of survival. The CBRP is developing and testing an innovative instrument and method to greatly improve both the early detection of breast cancer and help improve disease progression monitoring.

Metastasis, the major cause of mortality in patients with cancer, is caused by tumor cells that escape from the primary tumor into the bloodstream and travel through the circulation to distant sites where they develop into secondary tumors. Although these circulating tumor cells (CTCs) provide a link between the primary tumor and metastatic sites, the factors involved in circulating tumor cell survival in the blood circulation and eventual metastases are not well understood.

CTCs exist in the peripheral blood of cancer patients in low concentrations, making their isolation and identification a difficult task. Our laboratory has developed a reliable way to detect and to characterize CTCs isolated from the blood of cancer patients. We currently have multiple on-going clinical trials aimed to investigate the clinical utility of CTCs.
To read more please visit cancer.scripps.edu

Education

Diploma, Julius Maximilians University of Wurzburg, 1992
M.S., State University of New York at Albany, 1993
Ph.D., State University of New York at Albany, 1995

Selected References

Hsieh HB, Marinucci D, Bethel K, Curry DN, Humphrey M, Krivacic RT, Kroener J, Kroener L, Ladanyi A, Lazarus N, Kuhn P, Bruce RH, Nieva J. High speed detection of circulating tumor cells. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 2006;21:1893-1899.

Chrencik JE, Brooun A, Kraus ML, Recht MI, Kolatkar AR, Han GW, Seifert JM, Widmer H, Auer M, Kuhn P. Structural and Biophysical Characterization of the EphB4-EphrinB2 Protein-Protein Interaction and Receptor Specificity. J Biological Chemistry 2006;281:28185-28192.

Brooun A, Foster SA, Chrencik JE, Chien EYT, Kolatkar AR, Streiff M, Ramage P, Widmer H, Weckbecker G, Kuhn P. Remedial Strategies in structural proteomics: Expression, purification, and crystallization of the Vav1/Rac1 complex. Protein Expression and Purification, in press (2007), [Epub ahead of print].

Marrinucci D, Bethel K, Bruce RH, Curry DN, Hsieh B, Humphrey M, Krivacic RT, Kroener J, Kroener L, Ladanyi A, Lazarus NH, Nieva J, Kuhn P. Case study of the morphologic variation of circulating tumor cells. Human Pathology, in press (2007), [Epub ahead of print].

Links

Fluid Phase of Solid Tumors: Circulating Tumor Cells