Dr. Arthur M. Mercurio, Ph.D., is Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of
Cancer Biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. His research is aimed
at understanding mechanisms that enable epithelial-derived tumors (carcinomas) to invade
surrounding tissue and progress to metastatic disease, with an emphasis on mechanisms
that regulate epithelial and carcinoma differentiation. The loss of epithelial
differentiation in populations of carcinoma cells enhances their aggressive behavior and
rate of progression. His lab's research projects are based on the analysis and
clinical behavior of poorly differentiated carcinomas. The goal is to identify mechanisms
that account for the loss of differentiation and the highly aggressive behavior of these
tumors, and to exploit these mechanisms to improve prognosis and therapy. Ongoing
projects in the lab include studies on: integrin function and signaling;
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) in carcinoma differentiation and progression;
VEGF signaling and carcinoma progression; and regulation of epithelial fate and carcinoma
differentiation by estrogen receptors.
Articles
Link
VEGF/Neuropilin-2 Regulation of Bmi-1 and Consequent Repression of IGF-IR Define a Novel Mechanism of Aggressive Prostate Cancer (with Hira Lal Goel, Cheng Chang, Bryan M. Pursell, Irwin Leav, Stephen Lyle, Hualin Simon Xi, Chung-Cheng Hsieh, Helty Adisetiyo, Pradip Roy-Burman, Ilsa M. Coleman, Peter S. Nelson, Robert L. Vessella, Roger J. Davis, and Stephen R. Plymate), Cancer discovery (2012)
Link
Paternal RLIM/Rnf12 Is a Survival Factor for Milk-Producing Alveolar Cells (with Baowei Jiao, Hong Ma, Maxim N. Shokhirev, Alexander Drung, Qin Yang, JongDae Shin, Shaolei Lu, Meg Byron, Sundeep Kalantry, Jeanne B. Lawrence, Alexander Hoffmann, and Ingolf Bach), Cell (2012)
Contributions to Books
