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Cancer cells are characterized by chromosome imbalances and tissue-specific gains and losses of chromosome regions and/or tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes. In order to understand how these chromosome imbalances contribute to the initiation of tumorigenesis in normal cells, we routinely use molecular cytogenetic analyses (CGH, SKY, FISH) to define the many different kinds of rearrangements observed frequently in human cancer cells. My main area of research has involved the analysis of rectal carcinomas, and currently I am engaged in analyzing head and neck Squamous carcinomas, etc. Squamous carcinomas of the head and neck (HNSCC) are the sixth most common cancer among men worldwide and a major cause of mortality due to its relatively poor prognosis. There are currently more than 100,000 to 500,000 cases diagnosed world wide, with the highest incidence among men in the Asian Pacific. It is my goal to better characterize this difficult to treat carcinoma by analyzing numerous patient samples using SKY and CGH to gain a better means for diagnoses of HNSCC.
In addition, I have an ongoing collaboration (give names of Institutes, collaborators) to help analyze both human and mouse Embryonic Stem Cells. This research area is especially important in light of the fact that there is much interest in the scientific community to use embryonic stem cells to eventually cure human defects such as heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s. It is very critical to ensure that the cells that will be potentially used on human subjects are normal and free of genetic errors.
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