Hangauer Lab Research Focus

The Hangauer lab at UC San Diego studies the process by which drug sensitive tumors which initially shrink during treatment subsequently become drug resistant and regrow. This process, known as acquired resistance, prevents initially effective therapies from achieving durable responses or cures and is a major underlying cause of patient deaths. Our lab focuses on understanding the residual cancer cells that survive treatment without relying on resistance-conferring mutations. These "persister" cells utilize non-genetic mechanisms to tolerate cytotoxic stress. We broadly focus on understanding how persister cells survive and adapt, how they interact with the tumor microenvironment, and seek to identify new therapeutic approaches to eliminate persister cells to prevent tumor recurrence.