The overarching goal of our lab is to understand, at the molecular and cellular level how oncogenes control neuroendocrine plasticity, how this contributes to metastasis and how we can target this to improve the clinical outcome of patients. Our work focusses on 2 different aspects of pancreatic cancer 1) How Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common form of pancreatic cancer uses neuroendocrine differentiation as a strategy to escape chemotherapeutics and metastasize. 2) Can we identify novel therapeutic targets for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (PNET)?
We will use combined cellular and mouse models (Genetically engineered and Transplantation models) to uncover the molecular pathways necessary for the survival of pancreatic cancer cells, with focus on metastasis and chemo resistance.
In addition, we are also trying to establish patient derived organoid models for various cancers in an attempt to enable patient specific drug screening in the future.