Stover Lab
Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Harmon Stover
Institution: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
Project summary Ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC) is a rare subtype of ovarian cancer with resistance to chemotherapy and poor prognosis in advanced-stage disease. OCCC is heterogeneous; for instance, about half of OCCC have mutations in ARID1A, encoding a member of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex. New treatments for OCCC are urgently needed for both ARID1A-mutant and -WT OCCC. Our long-term goal is to develop new therapeutic strategies effective for patients with all subtypes of OCCC. We showed that OCCC is sensitive to inhibition of BCL-XL, pro-survival protein in the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis. Many anti-cancer treatments upregulate pro-apoptotic proteins and enhance dependency upon pro-survival proteins such as BCL-XL. We performed chemical screens to identify compounds active against OCCC alone or in combination with BCL-XL inhibition. We identified the PI3K/mTOR and HIF/VEGF pathways - important in the biology of OCCC - for which multiple inhibitors showed activity against OCCC and synergy with BCL-XL inhibition. Our overarching hypothesis is that the PI3K/mTOR and HIF/VEGF pathways represent fundamental therapeutic vulnerabilities in both ARID1A-mutant and -WT…
Active NIH Awards
- 1R01CA307360-01: Therapeutic vulnerabilities of ARID1A-mutant and -wildtype ovarian clear cell carcinoma (2026)
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