Event
BIOE Seminar: Stuart Martin
Friday, September 20, 2019
9:00 a.m.
A. James Clark Hall, Room 2132
Emily Rosenthal
301 405 3936
erosent1@umd.edu
Stuart S. Martin, Ph.D.
Professor of Physiology
Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Bioengineering and clinical translation of microfluidic technologies to improve targeting of cancer metastasis
The Martin lab studies the metastasis of circulating breast tumor cells by unifying expertise in tumor cell biology, bioengineering, physics and clinical medicine. Our molecular focus is on posttranslational modifications that lead to the stabilization of microtubules (detyrosination and acetylation). The Martin lab discovered that circulating breast tumor cells generate unique microtentacles on their surface that promote metastatic reattachment in distant tissues. These microtentacles arise from an imbalance in the cytoskeletal physical forces of microtubule expansion and the contraction of the actin cortex that lies beneath the plasma membrane. Patented microfluidic cell tethering technology developed through collaboration between the Martin lab (UM-School of Medicine) and the Jewell lab (UMCP-Bioengineering) efficiently captures circulating tumor cells for studies of microtentacles and stem cell characteristics. We have also demonstrated that microtentacles promote the formation of tumor cell clusters, which have recently been shown to have up to 50-fold higher metastatic potential. Through ongoing collaborations with bioengineers, physicists and clinicians, we are defining the microtubule mechanisms that increase metastasis of circulating tumor cells. Since current cancer therapies indiscriminately target all microtubules, there is an opportunity to specifically target the modified subsets of microtubules that promote metastasis, to both increase therapeutic efficacy and reduce toxic side effects.
About the Speaker
Dr. Martin received his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, after training as a Howard Hughes undergraduate research fellow at the University of Virginia. Dr. Martin completed a Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School that combined functional genomic studies with mouse models of breast tumor metastasis, under the mentorship of Dr. Phil Leder. Dr. Martin is currently a Professor at the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC).
