Patricia J. Keely, PhD
Associate Professor

Research Area- Cancer Biology, Cell Structure, Extracellular matrices, Cell Migration and Cell Communication

Home Dept - Pharmacology
Affiliated Depts - Molecular and Environmental Toxicology; Molecular Biology; Co-PI of Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation (LOCI)

Appropriate cellular interactions with the extracellular matrix (ECM) help to establish normal cellular architecture and differentiation. During oncogenic transformation, these normal interactions with the ECM are profoundly altered, resulting in cells that lose their polarization and differentiation, lose anchorage dependent growth control, and acquire a migratory, invasive phenotype. Our lab is interested in understanding, at a molecular level, how cellular interactions with the ECM determine differentiation and epithelial polarization, and how these interactions are altered during carcinogenesis to result in invasive, metastatic carcinoma. Cells interact with the ECM through a variety of cell surface receptors, the best understood of which are members of the integrin family. Much remains to be determined regarding the specific molecular players and signaling pathways downstream of integrins, and how these pathways are involved in the progression of various diseases. Therefore, part of the focus of the lab is to investigate signaling events through the integrin family of receptors. A second aspect of this work is to investigate how small GTPases of the Ras superfamily, some of which are known or suspected oncogenes, affect the response of cells to the ECM. Specifically, we has focused on R-Ras and Rho, which we find alter the way breast epithelial cells respond to the ECM, promoting cellular migration and invasion. We are particularly interested in studying signaling events using state of the art imaging approaches to understand how small GTPases function in a spatial and temporal manner during cell migration.