Cancer

All research at Upstate—basic, translational, and clinical—is broadly grouped in four areas of concentration: Disorders of the Nervous System; Diabetes, Metabolic Disorders, and Cardiovascular Diseases; Cancer; Infectious Diseases.

Students and faculty contribute to significant, well-funded cancer research at the basic and clinical levels. These research projects reflect a single, goal-oriented approach that cuts across academic departments.

In addition to basic science investigations in such areas as tumor cell invasion, oncogenes, immunotherapy and genetic inheritance, our scientists and physicians participate in national cancer trials.

* indicates College of Graduate Studies faculty.

• David Amberg, PhD*
  Professor
  Regulation of actin dynamics and analysis of genomic influences on actin function.
• Edward Berry, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  Biological energy transduction by membrane protein complexes, with emphasis on oxidative phosphorylation and photosynthesis.
  
• Scott Blystone, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Actin Cytoskeletal Dynamics in the leukocyte inflammatory phenotype.
  
• Gennady Bratslavsky, MD
  Professor and Chair
  
  • Molecular imaging of prostate, kidney, and bladder cancer
  • Progression of prostate and kidney cancer
  • Biomarkers, circulating tumor cells (CTCs)
• Jayne Charlamb, MD, IBCLC
  Assistant Professor
  Breast Cancer Prevention; Lactational Mastitis
• Xin Jie Chen, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Mitochondrial biogenesis and inheritance, aging and aging-related degenerative diseases.
• Timothy Damron, MD*
  Professor
  Radioprotectant strategies: pediatric growth plate. Treatment of Fractures in Pathology Bone, Reconstructive Alternatives: Limb-Sparing Sarcoma Surgery, Genetics of Pagetoid Osteosarcoma
  
• Wenyi Feng, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  Chromosomal DNA replication origins (location, timing and regulation), replication fork integrity and checkpoint regulation, genomic instability and chromosome fragility in both the yeast and human genome
  
• Gerold Feuer, PhD
  Associate Professor
  HTLV pathogenesis and Tax function; Humanized SCID mouse models of hematopoiesis; lentivirus vectors; KSHV/HHV-8 infection and pathogenesis; SCID-hu immune responses against HIV envelope
  
• Eileen Friedman, PhD*
  Professor
  The role of the kinase Mirk/dyrk1B in solid tumors
  
• Debashis Ghosh, MSc, PhD*
  Professor
  Structure and function of enzymes in estrogen and androgen biosynthesis; rational design of enzyme modulators in hormonal breast and prostate cancers; characterization of interphotoreceptor retinol binding proteins.
  
• Steven Hanes, PhD*
  Professor
  Gene expression in development and disease, RNA pol II regulation, homeobox genes, prolyl isomerases
  
• Ying Huang, MD, PhD*
  Professor
  Oncogenic signaling in cellular transformation and apoptosis; tumor suppressor genes.
• Ziwei Huang, PhD*
  Professor and Chair
  Discovery and mechanism of action of new pharmacological agents for cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, infectious disease, and stem cell-based regenerative medicine.
  
• Patricia Kane, PhD*
  Professor and Chair
  Vacuolar H+ATPases (structure, function, assembly and regulation), cellular pH homeostasis, cellular stress responses, protein sorting, genomics, yeast as a model system
• William Kerr, PhD*
  Professor
  Transplant immunology and stem cell biology.
  
• Dilip Kittur, MD, ScD, FACS*
  Professor
  Xenotransplantation, Endothelial cell dysfunction, Use of herbal products in transplant biology
• Barry Knox, PhD*
  Professor and Chair
  Visual transduction, Gene Expression, Membrane proteins
• Mira Krendel, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  Physiological functions of myosin motors and their roles in diabetic kidney disease and cancer
  
• Andrzej Krol, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  

  Advanced tomographic reconstruction in PET and SPECT. Breast cancer detection and imaging using molecular, MR and x-ray imaging. Nonrigid multimodality breast image registration and fusion. Advanced breast cancer lumpectomy. Ultrafast laser-based x-ray source for biomedical imaging. Advanced tomographic reconstruction in cone-beam micro-CT.

• Sheila Lemke, MD
  Associate Professor
  

  Clinical trials in Breast Cancer

• Stewart Loh, PhD*
  Professor
  

  Protein engineering, design, and folding

• Hong Lu, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  

  Gene regulation during liver development and carcinogenesis

  Drug metabolism, cancer chemoprevention, and cancer therapy

• Kenneth Mann, PhD*
  Professor
  Micro-mechanics of implant interfaces; damage evolution of joint replacements and biomaterials; in vivo models of tumor osteolysis and prediction of fracture risk; general orthopedic biomechanics.
• Bryan Margulies, MS, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  
  • Tumor/ adverse therapy effects on bone (fracture)
  • Endochondral bone growth
  • Cell migration and fate (MSC, osteoblast, adipocyte)
• Russell Matthews, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Role of glycoproteins in oncogenesis and brain development
• Golam Mohi, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  
  • Stem cell biology, cell signaling, hematopoiesis and blood cancer 
• Donna Osterhout, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  

  Biology of oligodendroglia and myelin formation during development, remyelination and repair in spinal cord injury and MS"

• Andras Perl, MD, PhD*
  Professor
  

  Genes and Viruses Predisposing to Autoimmunity, Genetics, Apoptosis, Endogenous Retroviruses, Transaldolase

• Francesca Pignoni, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  
  Neurogenesis; Retinal Progenitor Cells Specification and Proliferation; Genetic Control of Stem Cell Identity and Maintenance; Disease Genes Analysis in Drosophila
  
• Dawn Post, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  

  Cancer treatments. My lab is currently investigating two different cancer therapy approaches: (1) oncolytic viruses and (2) inhibitors of the EGFR/Her pathway.

• Michael Princiotta, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  Antigen processing and presentation; Cytotoxic T lymphocyte response to viral and bacterial infections
• Rosemary Rochford, PhD*
  Vice President for Research
  Etiology of viral-associated malignancies, gammaherpesvirus pathogenesis.
• Mark Schmitt, PhD*
  Professor
  Ribonucleoprotein assembly and biogenesis; mitochondrial RNA import, mRNA degradation, cell cycle control
  
• M Saeed Sheikh, MD, PhD*
  Professor
  Apoptotic signal transduction and cancer biology.
  
• Edward Shillitoe, PhD*
  Professor
  

  Gene therapy for cancer; Bacterial causes of obesity, diabetes and periodontal disease
  

• Vladimir Sirotkin, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  Mechanisms of the actin cytoskeleton assembly and role of myosin-1 during endocytosis in fission yeast.
• Steven Taffet, PhD*
  Professor
  Regulation of intercellular communication in the heart, gene expression during macrophage activation
• Christopher Turner, PhD*
  Distinguished Professor
  Regulation of cell migration by focal adhesion adapter proteins and their role in cancer cell metastasis.
  
• Richard Veenstra, PhD*
  Professor
  Regulation of connexin-specific-gap-junctions; gap junction channel biophysics.
• Stephan Wilkens, PhD*
  Associate Professor
  Structure and Mechanism of Membrane Bound Transport Proteins
• Richard JH Wojcikiewicz, PhD*
  Professor
  Intracellular signaling via InsP3 receptors and the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway.
  
• Sijun Zhu, MD, PhD*
  Assistant Professor
  

  Genetic mechanisms of Drosophila neural stem cell self-renewal and specification