Rui Tang, PhD

Washington University in St. Louis (WU)

Metastasis is a major challenge in the clinical outcome of cancer patients. During metastasis, cancer cells leave their home niche, migrate, and adapt to a completely new environment. This cascade relies on intensive cooperation between cancer cells and their environment, which composed by diverse stromal cells. By incorporating increasingly quantitative and high-throughput methods (Moba-seq*), powerful synthetic biology tools (G-baToN**), and multiplexed in vivo mouse models, the Tang lab intends to uncover general rules that govern cancer cells communicating with their neighbor stromal cells during the metastatic cascade with the ultimate goal to discover novel therapeutic targets across the continuum of cancer progression, including the lethal metastatic stage.