乌鸦传媒

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BMB PhD Program Faculty

Vito Rebecca

Cancer metastasis, therapy resistance, health disparities 

Assistant Professor

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Bloomberg School of Public Health

Vito Rebecca

Research Overview

The Rebecca laboratory focuses on understanding genetic and non-genetic mechanisms of therapy resistance and metastasis leveraged by cancer cells, using acral lentiginous melanoma as a paradigm. Their particular focus is on stem cell-like tumor cell subpopulations of melanoma cells that 鈥渉ijack鈥 developmental signaling cassettes to drive transient metastatic and drug resistant cell states. Their studies encompass quantitative tools, genetic editing, molecular biology, in vivo patient-derived xenograft therapy trials and bioinformatic analyses to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of actionable vulnerabilities for stem cell-like subpopulations of cancer cells.

 

 

Topic Areas

Selected Publications

  • Robertson BM, Fane ME, Weeraratna AT, Rebecca VW. Nature Cancer, 2024. 
  • Jagirdar K, Portuallo ME, Wei M, Wilhide M, Bravo Narula JA, Robertson BM, Alicea GM, Aguh C, Xiao M, Godok T, Fingerman D, Brown GS, Herlyn M, Elad VM, Guo X, Toska E, Zabransky DJ, Wubbenhorst B, Nathanson KL, Kwatra S, Goyal Y, Ji H, Liu Q, Rebecca VW. Oncogene, 2024.
  • Alicea GM, Rebecca VW.  Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research, 2020.
  • Alicea GM, Rebecca VW, Goldman AR, Fane ME, Douglass SM, Behera R, Webster MR, Kugel CH, Ecker BL, Caino MC, Kossenkov AV, Tang HY, Frederick DT, Flaherty KT, Xu X, Liu Q, Gabrilovich DI, Herlyn M, Blair IA, Schug ZT, Speicher DW, Weeraratna AT. Cancer Discovery, 2020.
  • Rebecca VW, Nicastri MC, Fennelly C, Chude CI, Barber-Rotenberg JS, Ronghe A, McAfee Q, McLaughlin NP, Martorella A, Alicea GM, Lee JJ, Schuchter LM, Xu X, Herlyn M, Marmorstein R, Gimotty PA, Speicher DW, Winkler JD, Amaravadi RK. Cancer Discovery, 2019.