Gerard Madlambayan
Oakland University, MI·Biology
Tumors are not just masses of cancer cells. Many solid tumors, including lung cancers, recruit immune cells from the bone marrow that help them keep growing.
- Fields
Biology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells
tumor microenvironment
radiation therapy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Aug 2026
What they work on
- Test whether binding between the integrin CD49f and laminins in the tumor extracellular matrix keeps hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells functional in tumors, by blocking or enhancing this interaction in vitro and in vivo.
- Define the intracellular signaling pathways that maintain HSPCs in tumors, starting with focal adhesion kinase (FAK), an enzyme that relays signals when cells attach to their surroundings.
- Determine whether radiation therapy increases HSPC migration to tumors and disrupts the CD49f-laminin interaction that holds HSPCs in place.
- Test whether irradiated tumors push released HSPCs to become M2-polarized, tumor-supporting macrophages, and whether blocking HSPC activity slows tumor growth and regrowth after radiation.
More about the research
Most attention has gone to tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), immune cells that can support tumors. The team recently found that hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) also live in tumors. HSPCs are the bone marrow cells that normally make all blood and immune cells. They can survive and keep working inside tumors for long periods. Tumors with more HSPCs regrow faster after radiation therapy (RT), but how HSPCs do this is unknown.
Why it matters
Solid tumors such as lung cancer often regrow after radiation therapy. If tumor-resident blood stem cells drive that regrowth, blocking their CD49f-laminin anchoring or their conversion into tumor-supporting macrophages could become a new way to make radiation work better. In the long run, this could improve outcomes for patients with solid tumors.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Xuefang Cao
University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine whether blood-forming stem and progenitor cells use the receptor CD27 to directly suppress donor T cells, using transplants into Rag1 knockout mice that lack CD27 and NK cells, in vivo and in vitro.
Daniel Brat
Northwestern University, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether the spatial arrangement of tumor-associated macrophages alongside hypoxic glioma cells in the peri-necrotic niche sustains immune suppression, using an RCAS/tv-a mouse model to follow microenvironment changes after necrosis in real time.
David Scadden
University of Southern California, CA·Biomedical Engineering
Test whether a bioinstructive material can form bone and functional bone marrow at a localized, easily accessible subcutaneous site that serves as a delivery portal for gene-modifying vectors.
The school
Oakland University: 5 labs on PI Pages, $39M a year on research, 60 research doctorates a year.
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