Welcome to the Ligon Lab
The Ligon lab is located in the Department of Pathology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and affiliated with the Broad Institute where we are focused on advancing personalized medicine approaches for cancer patients with a particular focus on tumors that affect the brain of adults and children. Our work spans the areas of basic research into the mechanisms by which cancer cells utilize developmental and stem cell transcriptional programs to support tumorigenesis with a focus on understanding how these pathways might be targeted to develop novel treatments for cancer. In addition, the Ligon lab uses expertise in pathology and diagnostics to advance the field of precision medicine to personalize treatments to individual patient and their tumors. The goal of the lab is to push the boundaries of direct experimental functional analysis of human patient specimens and cancer models (cell lines and xenografts) so as to more rapidly discover and bring treatments to patients with cancer. Areas of focus are the following:
- Single cell biology and diagnostics (DNA sequencing, functional live cell diagnostics, and imaging solutions).
- Patient models (patient derived cell lines, patient derived xenografts)
- Acute sensitivity testing of patient samples using novel technologies and engineering solutions (collaborations with Koch Institute, MIT, HMS for single cell mass measurements, novel imaging technologies for drug screening)
- Resistance mechanisms in gliomas
- Transcription factor biology (MYB, MYBL1 oncogenes in pediatric gliomas)
- Novel precision medicine approaches to clinical trials for brain tumors (Allele Consortium, Ivy Consortium, Neovax, and Insight Clinical Trials).