UVA | Cell Signaling Systems Biology Lab

Mechanisms of drugs resistance · Cancer cell decision making · Cancer gene therapy

Chemical Engineering & Biomedical Engineering — PI: Matthew Lazzara, Ph.D.

Cell signaling is the biochemical process cells use to make decisions about virtually everything they do – migrate, differentiate, survive, die, and more. Signaling involves networks of intracellular proteins whose concentrations, modification states, or localization change in response to events such as receptor-ligand binding. Cells interpret these signaling network changes, using rules scientists are only beginning to decipher, to execute decision processes. While proper signaling is critical to normal development and health, aberrant signaling leads to numerous diseases, including cancer. Thus, the ability to engineer signaling processes or intervene effectively in aberrant signaling has huge medical implications. Our lab integrates experimental and computational methods to study fundamental aspects of cell signaling regulation and applied aspects of cell signaling including the efficacy of therapeutics that target particular signaling pathways in cancer.