Center for Cell Reprogramming Seminar Series Featuring Cyrus Ghajar, PhD

The Center for Cell Reprogramming Seminar Series brings outstanding scientists to Georgetown to present their latest research findings and meet with faculty members.

Speaker: Cyrus Ghajar, PhD
Associate Professor
Public Health Sciences Division & Human Biology Division
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Talk Title: Understanding and Overcoming Immune Evasive Properties of Dormant Disseminated Tumor Cells

Dr. Ghajar’s research interest is in how distant tissue microenvironments influence the behavior of disseminated tumor cells (DTCs). His laboratory is working to understand how tissues like lung, liver, bone marrow, brain and lymph node regulate survival, growth, therapeutic resistance and immune evasion of DTCs, and how local and systemic changes awaken DTCs.

The goal of the Laboratory for the Study of Metastatic Microenvironments (LSM2) is to understand how microenvironments within distant tissues regulate the four “hallmarks” of DTCs: long-term survival, reversible growth arrest, immune evasion and therapeutic resistance. Solving these puzzles is key to extending metastasis-free survival of cancer patients; with the ultimate goal of preventing metastasis altogether.

Presented by The Center for Cell Reprogramming