Buckanovich Lab
Principal Investigator: Ronald J Buckanovich
Institution: University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
Most ovarian cancer (OvCa) patients develop fatal chemotherapy-resistant disease. Elucidating mechanisms of chemoresistance in OvCa may identify therapeutic targets to prevent or treat relapsed OvCa. One understudied mechanism of chemotherapy resistance in OvCa is quiescence. Quiescent cells are transiently non-proliferating and thus refractory to standard therapies which target rapidly proliferating cells. The over- arching hypothesis of this project is that hypothesis is that understanding the biology of quiescent OvCa cancer cells will identify critical new therapeutic targets to improve patient outcomes. We have used multiple novel approaches to identify and characterize the transcriptional signature of quiescent OvCa cells. This work indicates that quiescent OvCa (qOvCa) cells have several unique characteristics including: (i) a unique Quiescence Associated Secretory Phenotype (QuASP) which drives chemotherapy resistance in non- quiescent cancer cells, and (ii) altered expression of select components of the ubiquitin-proteosome system (UPS) including induction of UBL7. Indeed, our preliminary data indicate that induction of UBL7 is sufficient to drive a quiescent cell phenotyp…
Active NIH Awards
- 6R01CA278100-05: Evaluating unique aspects of quiescent ovarian cancer cell biology for therapeutic targets (2026)
- 5P50CA272218-04: Administrative Core (2026)
- 5P50CA272218-04: Project 3: Hedgehog Inhibition to Enhance Response to ICI Therapy (2026)
- 5P50CA272218-04: HCC Ovarian Cancer SPORE (2026)
- 5P30CA047904-38: Cancer Biology Program (2026)
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