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Debabrata Banerjee
Associate Professor
UMDNJ-RWJMS
Dept. of Pharmacology
Cancer Institute of NJ. Rm 303
195 Little Albany Street
New Brunswick. NJ 08901
Phone - (732) 235-6458
FAX - 8181
banerjed@umdnj.edu |
Experimental therapeutics, drug resistance, molecular imaging, mesenchymal stem cells
The current focus of research in the laboratory is to
investigate the interaction between tumor cells and stromal
cells, particularly metabolic cooperation between tumor cells
and stromal cells. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are
bone marrow-derived stromal cells and can differentiate into
carcinoma associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and become part of the
tumor stroma. These CAFs play a role in tumor progression. We
have shown earlier that breast cancer cells secrete higher
levels of interleukin-8 and interleukin-6 (IL-8 and IL-6)
under normoxia and hypoxia respectively, leading to the
recruitment and activation of hMSCs/CAFs towards tumor cells.
We are focusing on identifying critical components of the
tumor stromal cell dialog and developing targeted therapies to
disrupt tumor progression.
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