High Throughput Functional Testing of Patient Derived Cancer Cells

To accelerate the development of more effective cancer therapies, we have developed and optimized a cancer drug target discovery platform that entails high throughput siRNA and focused small molecule screens using patient-derived cancer cell cultures and isogenic cell systems, followed by orthogonal validation in physiologically relevant tumor models. This platform has been applied to several human cancers in need of targeted therapies including pancreatic cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, triple negative breast cancer, and ovarian cancer. In addition to providing drug targets for preclinical development, this platform has revealed in depth functional wiring of cancer cells and how these survival pathways are altered by genetic and environmental context.