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BMB PhD Program Faculty

Utthara Nayar

Targeting resistant breast and ovarian cancer

Assistant Professor

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Bloomberg School of Public Health

Utthara Nayar

Research Overview

Intrinsic or acquired resistance to anti-cancer therapies underlies most mortality from breast and ovarian cancers. Dr. Nayar identified a new subset of breast cancer that develops resistance to endocrine therapy through the acquisition of mutations in receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs), such as HER2 and FGFR. The Nayar laboratory aims to understand the underlying molecular mechanism(s) by which a tumor becomes resistant to targeted therapy through the acquisition of genetic alterations, employing ER+ breast and low-grade serous ovarian cancer as models. In particular, the lab is interested in mapping cancer-associated genetic variants to function and phenotype, uncovering the genetic and epigenetic drivers of resistance, and identifying new therapeutic vulnerabilities in therapy-resistant tumors. To this end, the laboratory leverages cell and molecular biology, animal models, functional genomics tools, and high-throughput screening methodologies to understand resistance to endocrine and targeted inhibitors in advanced metastatic breast and ovarian cancer.

 

 

Topic Areas

Selected Publications

  • Qi M, Nayar U, Ludwig LS, Wagle N, Rheinbay E.  BioMed Central Bioinformatics, 2021.
  • Persky NS, Hernandez D, Do Carmo M, Brenan L, Cohen O, Kitajima S, Nayar U, Walker A, Pantel S, Lee Y, Cordova J, Sathappa M, Zhu C, Hayes TK, Ram P, Pancholi P, Mikkelsen TS, Barbie DA, Yang X, Haq R, Piccioni F, Root DE, Johannessen CM. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2020.
  • Nayar U, Cohen O, Kapstad C, Cuoco MS, Waks AG, Wander SA, Painter C, Freeman S, Persky NS, Marini L, Helvie K, Oliver N, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Ma CX, Regev A, Winer EP, Lin NU, Wagle N. Nature Genetics, 2019.
  • Nayar U, Sadek J, Reichel J, Hernandez-Hopkins D, Akar G, Barelli PJ, Sahai MA, Zhou H, Totonchy J, Jayabalan D, Niesvizky R, Guasparri I, Hassane D, Liu Y, Sei S, Shoemaker RH, Warren JD, Elemento O, Kaye KM, Cesarman E.  Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2017.
  • Nayar U, Lu P, Goldstein RL, Vider J, Ballon G, Rodina A, Taldone T, Erdjument-Bromage H, Chomet M, Blasberg R, Melnick A, Cerchietti L, Chiosis G, Wang YL, Cesarman E. Blood, 2013.