Metastasis
Metastasis is the main cause of death both in pediatric sarcomas, lung cancer and in most other cancers. One of the major factors driving poor patient prognosis is therapy resistance of metastatic cells. Thus, it is critical to identify and investigate the mechanisms of therapy resistance in metastatic cancer.
We have developed a number of in vivo models with high metastatic potential in both osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma. We are interested in using lineage tracing, CRISPR/CAS9 and other approaches to identify cells with high metastatic capacity and study how they survive in the metastatic niche.
Projects
Marta title
In this project we utilize in vivo CRISPRi-based screening approaches using an orthotopic model of OS to identify novel therapeutic vulnerabilities for metastatic OS that can diminish the survival of metastatic tumor cells or sensitize OS cells to chemotherapy. The long-term goal is to provide an inflection point in the trajectory of translational/clinical OS research that will lead to continued improvements in survival.
Aafrin title
In this project, we aim to use a novel CRISPR-based lineage tracing tool -CaTCH in conjunction with transcriptomics to identify the molecular factors that allow OS tumor cells to survive and escape chemotherapy in metastatic niches (mostly lungs in OS). This work is part of an ongoing collaboration with the laboratory of Ana Obenauf at the IMP in Vienna, Austria.
The Sweet-Cordero Lab
University of California, San Francisco
Dept. of Pediatrics
1550 4th Street
Rock Hall Building, Room 382
San Francisco, CA 94158
Leanne Sayles
Laboratory Manager
Email: Leanne.Sayles@ucsf.edu
Flora Ignacio
Admin Assistant
Email: Flora.Ignacio@ucsf.edu