Akhurst Lab

Research focus

NIH R01 · 2025

A network approach to interrogate cellular plasticity and drug resistance in cancer

ABSTRACT We will address a critical problem in clinical oncology, namely how highly heterogeneous, drug resistant tumor cell populations develop, and how they can be targeted. Most tumors develop resistance to almost every type of therapy, including targeted-, radiation-, chemo- or immunotherapy, ultimately leading to cancer deaths. It is essential to develop novel methods to understand the processes leading to drug resistance under complex in vivo conditions where stromal and immune elements interact with malignant cells. We will study squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs), a major contributor to human cancer burden and one of the most common solid tumor types that arise in a range of tissues…

From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.