Posted on | CategoriesBiochemistry / School of Medicine | PI: Minna Roh-Johnson, PhD

Transferred Mitochondria Accumulate Reactive Oxygen Species, Promoting Proliferation

Cancer cells don’t act on their own. Their behavior is influenced by neighboring cells, which sometimes help them grow and spread. For instance, immune cells called macrophages patrol the body, engulfing and destroying potential threats. But when they interact with tumors, they can often produce signals that drive the disease. Continue reading → Transferred Mitochondria Accumulate Reactive Oxygen Species, Promoting Proliferation

Research Statement

Cancer cells hijack mechanisms of normal development. In a complex milieu of an animal, in which there are many different signals from many different cells, how does a cell parse through this information to know when and where to migrate? Our long term research goal is to identify these signals, how they are communicated, and how they are interpreted into a downstream response to regulate cell motility during development and cancer. We use a combination of animal models (zebrafish and mouse) and cell culture based models, taking advantage of the strengths of each system to answer outstanding questions in cancer cell biology.

Roh-Johnson Lab