Leslie Shaw, Ph.D.
| Professor |  |
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| Ph.D.: 1994, Harvard University | ||
| Postdoctoral research: Beth Israel Deaconess/Harvard Medical School | ||
| Office: | UMass Chan Medical School 364 Plantation Street, LRB-409 Worcester, MA 01605 |
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| Phone: | 508-856-8675 | |
| Email: | Leslie.Shaw@umassmed.edu | |
Research Description
The Shaw lab is interested in signaling pathways that regulate tumor progression and metastasis. We utilize both in vitro and in vivo approaches to investigate signaling pathways that play an essential role in the acquisition of a metastatic phenotype and to understand their mechanism of action. A longstanding interest of the lab is the insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway, with a focus on the Insulin Receptor Substrate (IRS) proteins and the mechanism by which these essential signaling adaptors regulate tumor progression. The current focus of the lab is to develop a structural understanding of how the IRS proteins regulate functional outcomes such as cancer stem cell self-renewal, invasion and metabolism. From a translational perspective, the goal of our work is to develop novel targets to predict or to treat metastatic cancer.
Click here for a complete list of published work
Rotation Projects
Current rotation projects include: 1)Structure/function analysis of IRS-1 and IRS-2. Biochemical and CryoEM approaches will be used to solve the structure of the IRS proteins. This structural information will be used to investigate the differential functions of IRS-1 and IRS-2 in cancer; 2) IRS2 regulation of cancer stem cell (CSC) function. The mechanism by which IRS2 regulates breast CSC self-renewal and the importance for metastasis will be investigated; 3) Analysis of IRS-dependent signaling. Mass Spectrometry and molecular biology approaches will be used to investigate how IRS-1 and IRS-2 regulate unique signaling pathways.