NAR Cancer: The 3D Chromatin Landscape of Rhabdomyosarcoma (Ignatius Lab)

June 16, 2023

   Meng Wang, Prethish Sreenivas, Benjamin D Sunkel, Long Wang, Myron Ignatius, Benjamin Z Stanton Abstract Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a pediatric soft tissue cancer with a lack of precision therapy options for patients. We hypothesized that with a general paucity of known mutations in RMS, chromatin structural driving mechanisms are essential for tumor proliferation. Thus, we carried out high-depth in situ Hi-C in [...]

ELife: Defining function of wild-type and three patient specific TP53 mutations in a zebrafish model of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (Ignatius Lab, Houghton Lab, Libich Lab, Chen, Tomlinson)

June 2, 2023

 Jiangfei Chen Kunal Baxi Amanda E Lipsitt Nicole Rae Hensch Long Wang Prethish Sreenivas Paulomi Modi Xiang Ru Zhao Antoine Baudin Daniel G Robledo Abhik Bandyopadhyay Aaron Sugalski Anil K Challa Dias Kurmashev Andrea R Gilbert Gail E Tomlinson Peter Houghton Yidong Chen Madeline N Hayes Eleanor Y Chen David S Libich Myron S Ignatius [...]

Paulomi Modi (Ignatius Lab) Recognized as 2023 Presidential Ambassador Scholar

May 8, 2023

 Ambassadors from left to right: Gina Baxter (SHP), Avani Ved (SON), Paulomi Modi (GSBS), Alejandra Garcia (LSOM) and Tyler Childs (SOD) Paulomi Modi is a second-year PhD student in the Integrated Biomedical Sciences program at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.  At 17, Modi moved to the United States on her own and later graduated [...]

Molecular Cancer Theraputics: Sensitization to Ionizing Radiation by MEK Inhibition Is Dependent on SNAI2 in Fusion-Negative Rhabdomyosarcoma (Ignatius, Vaseva, Houghton Labs)

January 3, 2023

 Nicole R. Hensch, Kathryn Bondra, Long Wang, Prethish Sreenivas, Xiang R. Zhao, Paulomi Modi, Angelina V. Vaseva, Peter J. Houghton, Myron S. Ignatius Abstract In fusion-negative rhabdomyosarcoma (FN-RMS), a pediatric malignancy with skeletal muscle characteristics, >90% of high-risk patients have mutations that activate the RAS/MEK signaling pathway. We recently discovered that SNAI2, in addition to [...]

Nicole Hensch (Ignatius Lab) Successfully Defends PhD Thesis!

May 17, 2022

 “SNAI2 protection of rhabdomyosarcoma against ionizing radiation can be targeted through MEK inhibition in RAS-mutant fusion-negative tumors”               Nicole Hensch Mentor: Myron Ignatius, PhD Program: PhD Integrated Biomedical Sciences Cell Biology Genetics, and Molecular Medicine Discipline

JCO Oncology Practice: Disparities in Cancer Genetic Testing and Variants of Uncertain Significance in the Hispanic Population of South Texas (Tomlinson Lab, Ignatius Lab)

May 12, 2022

 Stephanie Soewito, BS, MS1; Rachel Wyatt, MS2; Emily Berenson, MS2; Natalie Poullard, MS, MA3; Shawn Gessay, MS2,3,4; Lindsey Mette, MS, MPH2,3,5; Elena Marin, CHW6; Kristin Shelby, BA6; Elise Alvarez, BA3; Byeong Yeob Choi, PhD7; Clarissa Aviles, MSHS6; Anna Maria Pulido-Saldivar, MPH6,8; Pamela M. Otto, MD9; Ismail Jatoi, MD3,10; Chethan Ramamurthy, MD3; Myron Ignatius, PhD6; Virginia G. Kaklamani, MD, DSc3; and Gail E. Tomlinson, MD, PhD2,3,6 PURPOSE: Racial and ethnic disparities have included [...]

Cellular Oncology: Single-cell RNA profiling identifies diverse cellular responses to EWSR1/FLI1 down regulation in Ewing sarcoma cells (Houghton, Chen, Kitagawa, Ignatius)

January 12, 2022

 Roxane Khoogar, Fuyang Li, Yidong Chen, Myron Ignatius, Elizabeth R. Lawlor, Katsumi Kitagawa, Tim H.-M. Huang, Doris A. Phelps & Peter J. Houghton Background The EWSR1/FLI1 gene fusion is the most common rearrangement leading to cell transformation in Ewing sarcoma (ES). Previous studies have indicated that expression at the cellular level is heterogeneous and that levels [...]

CANCER RESEARCH: SNAI2-Mediated Repression of BIM Protects Rhabdomyosarcoma from Ionizing Radiation (Houghton, Ignatius, Vaseva, and Zheng labs)

November 24, 2021

 Long Wang, Nicole R. Hensch, Kathryn Bondra, Prethish Sreenivas, Xiang R. Zhao, Jiangfei Chen, Rodrigo Moreno Campos, Kunal Baxi, Angelina V. Vaseva, Benjamin D. Sunkel, Berkley E. Gryder, Silvia Pomella, Benjamin Z. Stanton, Siyuan Zheng, Eleanor Y. Chen, Rossella Rota, Javed Khan, Peter J. Houghton and Myron S. Ignatius Abstract Ionizing radiation (IR) and chemotherapy [...]

Molecular Cancer Therapeutics: Vertical Inhibition of the RAF-MEK-ERK Cascade Induces Myogenic Differentiation, Apoptosis and Tumor Regression in H/NRAS Q61X-mutant Rhabdomyosarcoma (Houghton, Chen, Ignatius, Vaseva)

November 8, 2021

 Natalia Garcia, Vanessa Del Pozo, Marielle E. Yohe, Craig M. Goodwin, Terry J Shackleford, Long Wang, Kunal Baxi, Yidong Chen, Anna T Rogojina, Sara M. Zimmerman, Cody J. Peer, William D. Figg, Myron S. Ignatius, Kris C Wood, Peter J. Houghton, and Angelina V Vaseva Abstract Oncogenic RAS signaling is an attractive target for fusion-negative rhabdomyosarcoma (FN-RMS). Our study validates the role of the ERK MAPK effector pathway in mediating RAS dependency in a panel of H/NRASQ61X-mutant RMS cells and correlates in vivo efficacy of the MEK [...]