Antonia Patsialou
    Instructor
    Albert Einstein College of Medicine
    Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology

    Email: antonia [dot] patsialou [at] einstein [dot] yu [dot] edu




RESEARCH INTERESTS AND FOCUS

    My research focus is the study of the pro-invasive tumor microenvironment in breast cancer and how this leads to dissemination and metastasis. We are using both transgenic mouse models of breast cancer as well as xenografts in immunodeficient mice of patient-derived primary breast tumor tissue. By direct observation of living mouse mammary tumors with intravital multiphoton imaging we have shown in the past that dissemination of tumor cells involves active motility of the tumor cells towards and transendothelial migration into blood vessels. Autocrine signaling in the tumor cells as well as paracrine interactions with the infiltrating macrophages in the tumor microenvironment promote these behaviors. In addition, in vivo profiling of the migratory breast tumor cells reveals a gene expression pattern, or “invasion signature”, that is prognostic of metastasis in breast cancer patients independent of other clinical parameters.

     Currently, we are focusing in more detail in these fundamental questions:  How is the “invasive gene expression pattern” regulated?  How exactly do these autocrine and paracrine signaling loops give an invasive and potentially metastatic advantage to the tumor cells?  How do these signaling networks interplay/synergize in the same tumor cell?  Can we use multiphoton microscopy in live tumors to visualize and further dissect the role of specific signaling networks to the tumor cell or the stroma?  Ultimately, it is our hope that dissecting the mechanisms of invasion and dissemination of tumor cells in vivo will lead to novel insights and rationale for prognostic and therapeutic target design in breast cancer.



EDUCATION AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

2011-present
  • Instructor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA

2006-2011
  • Postdoctoral Associate
    Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA
    Advisor:      Dr. John S. Condeelis
    I have been working on defining microenvironments of invasion in human breast tumors.  I am specifically interested in:
    • developing new models of human breast cancer in mice from patient-derived primary tumor tissue
    • discovering gene expression patterns that govern invasion and dissemination in human breast cancer
    • using multiphoton intravital imaging to directly visualize tumor-stroma interactions during migration and invasion in primary breast tumors.



1999-2005
  • Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Genetics
    Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology
    Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
    (GPA: 3.8/4.0)
    Thesis advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Moran
    My main research interests were:
    • characterizing the structure-function properties of the ARID DNA-binding domain of the human protein p270/ARID1A, an integral member of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes
    • studying the role of p270/ARID1A in the tumor suppressor and cell cycle regulator functions of the SWI/SNF complexes.
1994-1999
  • B.Sc. in Biology
    University of Crete, Greece
    My undergrad education included a one year research thesis (1998-1999, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology [IMBB], Crete).
    Thesis advisor: Dr. Georgios Chalepakis
    My research interests were:
    • cloning the gene Fras1, a gene mutated in Fraser syndrome
    • bacterial expression and purification of the Fras1 protein for structural studies.

 

MEMBERSHIPS AND COMMITTEES

2002-present     Associate Member of the American Association for Cancer Research.

2006-present     Tumor Microenvironment Network (TMEN), NCI (http://tmen.nci.nih.gov/).

2010                 Member of the organization committee of the 1st TMEN Junior Investigators Meeting, New York, NY, May 2010.

 

INVITED SEMINARS

2012 April ---"In vivo profiling of migratory tumor cells identifies novel mediators of invasion and dissemination in human breast cancer".  2012 AACR Annual Meeting,         Minisymposium on "Metastasis Drivers: Models to Niches", Chicago, IL.  

2011 November --- "Unraveling invasion and dissemination programs in breast cancer in vivo".  iSymposia on "Mouse Models of Cancer".

2011 May --- "CSF1-receptor in tumor cells and macrophages: autocrine and paracrine mechanisms of invasion and dissemination in breast cancer".  2nd TMEN (Tumor Microenvironment Network) Junior Investigators Meeting, Boston, MA.

2011 January --- "Gene expression profiles and mechanisms of invasion in breast cancer". Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

2010 October --- "Gene expression profiles and mechanisms of invasion in breast cancer.  Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI) for Biomedical Research,Basel, Switzerland. Part of the "Growth Control and Cancer Seminars" series.

2010 October --- "Mechanisms of invasion in breast cancer and identification of an invasion gene signature". 15th World Congress on Advanced in Oncology, Loutraki, Greece.

2010 September --- "Gene expression profiles and mechanisms of invasion in breast cancer".  London Research Institute (LRI), London, UK.

2010 May --- "In vivo invasion assay: collection of migratory tumor cells and their characterization for stromal interactions during invasion in primary breast tumors". 1st TMEN Junior Investigators Meeting, New York, NY.  Part of the "Novel Technologies" session.

2009 October --- "Invasion of human breast cancer cells in vivo requires both paracrine and autocrine loops involving the colony stimulating factor-1 receptor".  5th International  Conference on Tumor Microenvironment, Versailles, France.


PUBLICATIONS

Review Articles:
  • E. Roussos, J. Condeelis and A. Patsialou.  Chemotaxis in Cancer.  Nature Reviews Cancer. 11(8): 573-587. [pubmed]
  • D. Wilsker, A. Patsialou, P.B. Dallas, and E. Moran.  2002.   ARID proteins: A diverse family of DNA binding proteins implicated in the control of cell growth, differentiation, and development.  Cell Growth & Differentiation. 13: 95-106. [pubmed]
Peer-Reviewed Research articles:
  • A. Patsialou, Y. Wang, J. Lin, K. Whitney, S. Goswami, P. A. Kenny and J. Condeelis.  Profiling of in vivo migratory cancer cells reveals novel mediators for invasion and dissemination in human breast cancer.  Submitted.
  • A. Patsialou*,  H. Gil-Henn*,  Y. Wang, M. S. Warren, J. Condeelis and A. Koleske.  Arg/Abl2 promotes invasion and attenuates proliferation of breast cancer in vivo. (*equal contribution)  In revision. 
  • S.C. Stadler*, T. C. Vincent*, A. Patsialou, B.D. Cherrington, S. Mohanan, J.J. Wakshlag, X. Zhang, B. Garcia, A. M. Brown, J. Condeelis, S.A. Coonrod and C. D. Allis.  Dysregulation of PAD4-mediated citrullination in the amino-terminus of GSK3b leads to reduction of nuclear GSK3b levels and the induction of EMT in breast cancer cells.  (*equal contribution)   In revision. 
  • H. Liu*, M. R. Patel*, J. A. Prescher*, A. Patsialou, S. Goswami, D. Qian, J. Lin, S. Wen, Y. F.  Chang, M. Bachmann, Y. Shimono, P. Dalerba, M. Adorno, N. Lobo, F. M. Dirbas, J. Bueno, J. Condeelis, C. H. Contag, S. S. Gambhir and M. F. Clarke.  Cancer stem cells from human breast tumors are involved in spontaneous metastases in orthotopic mouse models.  PNAS.  107(42):18115-20. (*equal contribution) [pubmed]
  • A. Patsialou, J. Wyckoff, Y. Wang, S. Goswami, E.R. Stanley and J. Condeelis. 2009.  Invasion of human breast cancer cells in vivo requires both paracrine and autocrine loops involving the colony stimulating factor-1 receptor.  Cancer Res. 69(24):9498-506. [pubmed]
  • H. Pang, R. Flinn, A. Patsialou, J. Wyckoff, E. Roussos, H. Wu, S. Goswami, J. Condeelis, J. Segall and J. M. Backer.  2009.  Differential enhancement of breast cancer cell motility and metastasis by helical and kinase domain mutations of class IA PI3K.  Cancer Res. 69(23):8868-76. [pubmed]
  • S. Goswami , U. Philippar, D. Sun, A. Patsialou, J. Avraham, W. Wang, F. Di Modugno, P. Nistico, F.B. Gertler, and J. Condeelis.  2009.  Identification of invasion specific splice variants of the cytoskeletal protein Mena present in mammary tumor cells during invasion in vivo.  Clin Exp Metastasis.  26(2):153-9. [pubmed]
  • N.G. Nagl Jr, X. Wang, A. Patsialou, M. Van Scoy and E. Moran.  2007.  Distinct Mammalian SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes with opposing roles in cell cycle control.  EMBO J. 26(3): 752-63. [pubmed]
  • A. Patsialou, D. Wilsker, and E. Moran.  2005.  DNA binding properties of ARID family proteins.   Nucleic Acids Res.  33(1): 66-80. [pubmed]
  • N.G. Nagl Jr, A. Patsialou, D.S. Haines, P.B. Dallas, G.R. Beck Jr, and E. Moran.  2005.  The p270 (ARID1A/SMARCF1) subunit of mammalian SWI/SNF-related complexes is essential for normal cell cycle arrest.  Cancer Res. 65(20): 9236-9244. [pubmed]
  • D. Wilsker,  A. Patsialou, S.D. Zumbrun, S. Kim, Y. Chen, P. B. Dallas and E. Moran.   2004.   The DNA-binding properties of the ARID-containing subunits of yeast and mammalian SWI/SNF complexes.   Nucleic Acids Res.   32(4): 1345-1353. [pubmed]
  • J. Garriga, A.L. Jayaraman, A. Limon, G. Jayadeva, E. Sotillo, M. Truongcao, A. Patsialou, B.E. Wadzinski, and X. Grana.   2004.   A dynamic equilibrium between CDKs and PP2A modulates phosphorylation of pRB, p107 and p130.   Cell Cycle.   3(10): 1320-30. [pubmed]