Nikolai N. Khodarev

Biography

Interactions of primary tumors and metastatic clones with the host microenvironment create the major selection forces that drive an evolution of heterogeneous tumor clones. One of the majoomponents of these forces is Jak/Stat-signaling, which may be activated in tumor cells by multiple cytokines and growth factors. Like any signaling system, Jak/Stat signaling has pro-survival and pro-death components; that balance determines outcome of this signaling in tumor cells. Our research is aimed at detecting specific downstream Jak/Stat-dependent genes and proteins that can be used as targets for the increased killing of various tumor clones by genotoxic therapy, and at the same time can be used for the restriction of metastatic dissemination. We are also interested in the role of microRNAs in metastases, especially in the differences between microRNAs expressed in the limited metastases (oligometastases) compared to widely disseminated metastases (polymetastases). We believe that detection of such differentially expressed microRNAs in the clinical cohorts of an oligo- and polymetastatic patients will provide new knowledge about mechanisms of metastatic dissemination and will lead us to the new therapeutical approaches to restrict metastatic dissemination and to make metastatic disease potentially curable.

Research Interest

Tumor biology, cytokines,microRNAs, cancer therapy