Lab Projects

Isolation and characterization of a proliferative hepatoblastoma cell subtype

Using single cell nuclear RNA seq and advanced computational biology techniques, we described the genomic signatures of 12 distinct cell subtypes within human hepatoblastoma tumors. We have isolated one of these cell subtypes that displays a metabolically-active and proliferative phenotype that is able to recapitulate hepatoblastoma tumor in-vitro. We hope to further characterize the biological function of this cell type in order to understand how it a) drives tumor development and b) interacts with other cell subtypes and link this information to our clinical understanding of hepatoblastoma development.

Mechanistic action of enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) in hepatoblastoma pathogenesis

EZH2 is an enzyme that can affect the expression of genes by working in a complex of other enzymes. However, while EZH2’s overexpression has been identified in hepatoblastoma, the significance of this overexpression or possible contribution to tumor development is unclear. We hope to define not only how EZH2 functions in hepatoblastoma but also to determine if it can be a therapeutic target clinically.

Development of patient derived xenograft (PDX) and primary hepatoblastoma cell lines

Due to often collaborative patient relationships and institutional expertise in pediatric liver development and malignancy, our lab has developed a number of PDXs and human tumor derived cell lines that provide experimental and methodological platforms for ourselves and other researchers to study human HB and liver development.