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. Megan Burger who has been awarded a $150k grant from the Lung Cancer Research Foundation for her proposal, “Understanding Resistance in Lung Cancer”.
Dr. Teresa Zimmers has been features in two articles this month:
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"Understanding and Treating Pancreatic Cancer Cachexia" posted in Cancer Research Catalyst, the official blog of the American Association for Cancer Research.
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"Cachexia Research Showing Promise" posted in Lustgarten's Let's Win blog.
Dr. Teresa Zimmers has been invited by AACR to Chair and speak in one of the Major Symposia taking place at the AACR Annual Meeting 2025 in Chicago this coming April. She will be Chairing the session titled, "Host Parameters of Cachexia and Inflammation and Early Biomarkers of Clinical Response." Congratulations!
Dr. Molly Thomas has been nominated to serve as a member of the ASCO expert panel charged with updating the management guidelines for immune-related adverse events. She will be serving on this panel for the next two years. Congratulations!
Congratulations to Dr. Kathryn Fowler, a surgery resident in Missy Wong’s laboratory, who was named the Norton Fellow in Pancreatic Translational Research, and for her recently awarded grant from American Society of Colon & Rectal Surgeons 2024.
Dr. Amy Moran was interview as part of a story in the Portland Business Journal, "Oregon leads battle to beat cancer: Collaboration, funding vital for driving next-generation research", sponsored by the Kuni Foundation.
Congratulations to Dr. Benedikt Grau, postdoc in the Malhotra lab, who has been awarded a Collins Medical Trust grant for his project “Investigating the mode of action of CET-6d, a first-in-class PIM-1 protein degrader”.
Congratulations to Dr. Jonathan Brody who has been invited to participate in the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) Pancreatic Cancer Research Program (PCARP) as a member of the FY24 Programmatic Panel. The Programmatic Panel is a multifunctional panel composed of accomplished scientists, clinicians, and consumers. The panel provides timely recommendations for the development of biomedical research and related management of funds to realize programmatic goals for pancreatic cancer research.
Congratulations to Dr. Teresa Zimmers who will be giving the Prometheus Basic Science Keynote Lecture at the 17th International Society of Sarcopenia, Cachexia and Wasting Diseases congress in Washington, DC in December. Dr. Zimmers will be the 11th Prometheus lecturer and the first woman.
Recent Publications
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.
Congratulations to Dr. Ranish Patel from the Wong lab for his recently accepted manuscript, “Circulating Neoplastic-Immune Hybrid Cells are Biomarkers of Occult Metastasis and Treatment Response in Pancreatic Cancer” in Cancers. This is a collaborative study including Drs. Park, Mayo, Mills, Sheppard, Chang, Gibbs, Kardosh and Lopez.
Dr. Amy Moran and her lab have had their paper, "Androgen receptor inhibition increases MHCI expression and improves immune response in prostate cancer" accepted at Cancer Discovery this past week.
Dr. Josh Moreau and his lab have published, "IL-12/IL-23 blockade reveals patterns of asynchronous inflammation in pyoderma gangrenosum" in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Dr. Rashi Yadav, a postdoc in the Moreau lab, led the work.
Congratulations to Jonathan Brody, PhD who published "The Pivotal Role of Germline BRCA2 Pathogenic Variants in “Apparently Sporadic” Pancreatic Cancer" in AACR's Cancer Research journal.
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!