Laura M. Heiser, Ph.D.
- Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine
- Vice Chair, Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine
- OHSU Center for Spatial Systems Biomedicine
- Program Co-Leader, Quantitative Oncology, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, School of Medicine
- Associate Director of Complex Systems Modeling, CEDAR, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, School of Medicine
Biography
My laboratory uses integrated computational and experimental techniques to uncover mechanisms of therapeutic response and disease progression in cancer. We use a variety of state-of-the-art imaging and molecular techniques to deeply examine how diverse cells that make up tumors respond to various stimuli so that this information can be used to develop predictive computational models.
I have served as vice chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering since 2019 and as co-leader of the Quantitative Oncology Program at the Knight Cancer Institute since 2018. The QO program develops and applies advanced measurement capabilities and computational techniques to understand the behavior of cancer cells and tissues as they evolve, respond to therapy, and interact with their microenvironments.
I have led multiple collaborative interdisciplinary projects, including serving as co-PI on an NHGRI U54 LINCS Center grant designed to interrogate the influence of microenvironmental factors on epithelial cells. I have also served as PI on an NCI U54 Cancer Systems Biology Consortium Center grant focused on understanding the role of microenvironmental signals in modulating cell state heterogeneity and therapeutic response. Finally, I have led the development of international DREAM challenges, which uses crowdsourcing to solve complex biomedical research questions.
Education and training
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Degrees
- B.A., 1998, University of California
- Ph.D., 2004, University of Pittsburgh
Additional information
Publications
Publications
Senescent Cell–Derived Extracellular Vesicles Inhibit Cancer Recurrence by Coordinating Immune Surveillance
Cancer ResearchTNBC response to paclitaxel phenocopies interferon response which reveals cell cycle-associated resistance mechanisms
Scientific ReportsCommunity assessment of methods to deconvolve cellular composition from bulk gene expression
Nature communicationsFunctional delineation of the luminal epithelial microenvironment in breast using cell-based screening in combinatorial microenvironments
Cellular SignallingRhoA GEF Mcf2lb regulates rosette integrity during collective cell migration
Development (Cambridge)Single-Cell Analysis of Rohon-Beard Neurons Implicates Fgf Signaling in Axon Maintenance and Cell Survival
Journal of NeuroscienceAn altered extracellular matrix–integrin interface contributes to Huntington’s disease-associated CNS dysfunction in glial and vascular cells
Human molecular geneticsAnalysis and modeling of cancer drug responses using cell cycle phase-specific rate effects
Nature communicationsLive Cell Lineage Tracing of Dormant Cancer Cells
Advanced Healthcare MaterialsMOBILE pipeline enables identification of context-specific networks and regulatory mechanisms
Nature communicationsMorphodynamical cell state description via live-cell imaging trajectory embedding
Communications BiologyMYC Deregulation and PTEN Loss Model Tumor and Stromal Heterogeneity of Aggressive Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Nature communicationsA lineage tree-based hidden Markov model quantifies cellular heterogeneity and plasticity
Communications BiologyA multi-encoder variational autoencoder controls multiple transformational features in single-cell image analysis
Communications BiologyA multi-omic analysis of MCF10A cells provides a resource for integrative assessment of ligand-mediated molecular and phenotypic responses
Communications BiologyA multiplex implantable microdevice assay identifies synergistic combinations of cancer immunotherapies and conventional drugs
Nature biotechnologyAn omic and multidimensional spatial atlas from serial biopsies of an evolving metastatic breast cancer
Cell Reports MedicineA scalable, open-source implementation of a large-scale mechanistic model for single cell proliferation and death signaling
Nature communicationsSystematic replication enables normalization of high-throughput imaging assays
BioinformaticsTheoretical and experimental analysis of negative dielectrophoresis-induced particle trajectories
ELECTROPHORESISCabozantinib and dasatinib synergize to induce tumor regression in non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma
Cell Reports MedicineCharacterizing advanced breast cancer heterogeneity and treatment resistance through serial biopsies and comprehensive analytics
npj Precision OncologySensitivity to targeted therapy differs between HER2-amplified breast cancer cells harboring kinase and helical domain mutations in PIK3CA
Breast Cancer ResearchAutomatic Transformation and Integration to Improve Visualization and Discovery of Latent Effects in Imaging Data
Journal of Computational and Graphical StatisticsEnzalutamide response in a panel of prostate cancer cell lines reveals a role for glucocorticoid receptor in enzalutamide resistant disease
Scientific ReportsIntegrating mathematical modeling with high-throughput imaging explains how polyploid populations behave in nutrient-sparse environments
Cancer Research