Shuchi Gulati
University of California-Davis, CA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Kidney cancer is among the ten most common cancers in the United States, with roughly 76,000 new cases a year. When the most common form, clear cell renal cell carcinoma, is still confined to the kidney or nearby tissue, surgery is the main treatment, yet about half of patients relapse within five years.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Biochemistry
Genetics
- Topics
kidney cancer
clear cell renal cell carcinoma
ccRCC
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Test whether a gene-activity signature built from electron transport chain, mitochondrial ribosomal protein and MHC class II genes separates localized clear cell renal cell carcinoma into tumors at risk of early relapse versus not.
- Measure copper bound to cytochrome c oxidase in kidney tumors using size exclusion chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and test whether it reflects mitochondrial respiration and predicts early relapse.
- Determine whether pools of copper in patient serum correspond to copper content in matched clear cell renal cell carcinoma tumors, as a possible blood-based marker of aggressive disease.
- Combine the transcriptomic and metal-based readouts into a risk assessment framework intended to support later validation studies and trials of adjuvant therapy in biomarker-defined high-risk patients.
More about the research
Extra drug treatment after surgery, called adjuvant therapy, has given inconsistent results across trials, partly because there is no reliable way to tell which patients are truly at high risk. This project seeks laboratory tests that can sort patients after surgery into those likely to relapse soon and those who are not.
Why it matters
Patients with kidney cancer removed by surgery currently have no test to tell them whether added drug therapy is worth its side effects. A tissue gene signature or an inexpensive copper measurement that flags early relapse could steer adjuvant treatment toward those most likely to benefit while sparing low-risk patients from toxic drugs, and a blood-based copper test may offer a less invasive option.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yin Xi
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Measure blood flow in clear cell renal cell carcinoma with arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI and test whether it matches tumor regions with molecular changes that drive new blood vessel growth, such as HIF and VEGF activity.
Joshua T Mendell
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Biochemistry
Determine how altering dihydrouridine synthase (DUS) activity changes D modifications on tRNAs, overall tRNA metabolism and the PTMD mRNA-decay pathway in human and mouse ccRCC cells.
Srinivas Malladi
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine how TEAD, a gene-switching transcription factor, drives AXL expression and brain metastasis in dormant, therapy-resistant HER2-positive breast cancer cells, using the lab's brain metastasis models.
The school
University of California-Davis: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.0B a year on research, 647 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.