Srinivas Malladi
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Most cancer deaths are caused by metastasis, the spread of cancer cells from the original tumor to other organs. Yet not every invasive tumor spreads, and some cancer cells can hide quietly in a new organ for months or years before growing back.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Biology
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
metastasis
cancer biology
breast cancer
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- 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.
- Test whether the AXL inhibitor BGB324 limits survival of brain-seeking breast cancer cells and restores the tumor-killing ability of natural killer (NK) cells weakened by tumor exposure.
- Investigate how PRRX1-driven vasculogenic mimicry, in which tumor cells form vessel-like channels, promotes metastasis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma, and test a TGF-β inhibitor against metastatic progression.
- Define how the signaling molecule CXCL1 recruits CXCR2-positive immune cells to the invasive front of kidney tumors to drive metastasis, and test whether a CXCR2 antagonist slows it.
More about the research
Both projects ask what gives cancer cells the ability to spread and survive in distant organs. They also ask which of these traits could be blocked with drugs. One project studies breast cancer that returns in the brain, and the other studies kidney cancer that invades blood vessels.
Why it matters
Patients with HER2-positive breast cancer face a high risk of relapse in the brain, and about half of kidney cancer patients whose tumors invade blood vessels develop metastasis. This work could identify which patients are likely to relapse. It could also test drugs such as AXL inhibitors, TGF-β inhibitors and CXCR2 antagonists that may be combined with standard care to limit tumor survival, restore immune killing, and block the spread of cancer.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Eleonora Dondossola
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Define the cell types, gene activity states and real-time behavior of the ccRCC bone metastasis environment in mice, combining multiphoton microscopy in living animals and removed tissue with single-cell RNA sequencing.
Mohd Nasser
University of Nebraska Medical Center, NE·Medicine & Clinical Research
Establish whether MUC5AC, a secreted gel-forming mucin, works as a predictive biomarker for brain metastasis by testing if high levels in primary breast tumors forecast later brain spread and correlate with therapy response, survival and relapse.
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.
The school
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: 40 labs on PI Pages, $869M a year on research, 86 research doctorates a year.
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