Identifying the chemokines relevant to progression of HNC

Description of projects available to graduate students:
Another area of study involves the promotion of tumor metastasis by a family of molecules called chemokines. We are finding important roles for chemokine receptors in cancer metastasis. These chemokines are small, secreted molecules that mediate homing and recruitment of immune cells in response to inflammation, through a family of G-protein linked receptors. Overall these studies are designed to identify the chemokines relevant to progression of HNC and to provide initial data on their possible clinical utility as components of future vaccination therapies for HNC. In addition his group is interested in developing immune/inflammatory biomarkers present in the bloodstream for head and neck cancer detection and monitoring in populations at risk for cancer recurrence and/or second primary tumors.

Techniques graduate student will learn:
Western blotting, flow cytometry plasmid construction and assay of transfectants, quantitative RT-PCR.