Defining Genetic Drivers of Prostate and Bladder Cancer Metastases

The fundamental challenge in identifying new targets for drug development is defining which of the multiple genomic changes seen in human prostate and bladder cancers, represent a critical requirement for tumor metastases. To overcome this problem, we developed multiple models that recapitulate the human cancer including: 1) metastatic genotype; 2) primary diseases progressing to metastases; 3) different metastatic sites. Using fluorescence and luminescence in our model allows for the  tracking of metastatic progression and enables longitudinal molecular analysis comparing primary and metastatic sites from the same animal. We use a variety of downstream tools including: 1) immunohistochemistry; 2) signaling pathways analysis, and 3) DNA/RNA sequencing technologies.