Artem Baranowsky

Project: Stem Cell Markers Frequently Associated with Tumors

Growing body of evidence suggests the connection between tumor progression and reacquisition of stem cell traits. Expression of the genes related to these traits, which are dormant in the normal somatic cells, promotes progression of the disease and to a great extent enhances cancerous cells ability to survive and evade treatment.

Recently, we assessed the expression of such genes across different tumors. While unable to unravel inter-tumor heterogeneity we observed a predominant trend of reactivation of stem-cell genes in tumors. Moreover, stem-cell gene expression showed highly embryonic origin-specific patterns. Currently, we are working on the integration of data on alternative splicing into our analysis to further elucidate the effect of stem cell genes on tumor complexity.

Research Interests:

• Cancer Stem Cells
• Lineage dependancy in carcinogenesis
• Reacquisition of expression and splicing signature related to stem cells in tumors