David Dawson, M.D, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is Director of the UCLA Pancreas Tissue Bank. Since 2005, the UCLA Pancreas Tissue Bank has accrued a repository of high quality archival pancreas tissues and tumors that are made available to researchers for the purpose of facilitating basic and translational research in pancreatic diseases. These tissue resources allow investigators to confirm promising laboratory results in patient tissue samples and are invaluable tools for the discovery and validation of diagnostic, prognostic or predictive clinical biomarkers.
Dr. Dawson also runs a basic and translational research laboratory focused on pancreatic cancer. The laboratory’s primary goals are to better understand and treat this lethal disease by:
- Identifying novel genetic and epigenetic alterations responsible for the development and progression of pancreatic cancer
- Understanding the role of cell signaling pathways in promoting or inhibiting the development of pancreatic cancer
- Exploring genetic and environmental factors that promote KRAS-initiated dysplastic progression to pancreatic cancer to better inform screening and chemoprevention strategies in at-risk populations
- Identifying and validating clinically useful biomarkers with the ultimate goals of early detection and personalized therapy for pancreatic cancer
Current Research Projects
- Mechanisms and therapeutic consequences of aberrant Wnt signaling in pancreatic cancer progression
- DNA methylation changes as surrogate markers or causal factors in pancreatic tumorigenesis
- Paracrine signaling events mediating tumor-stromal interactions in pancreatic cancer
- Survival-based analysis of genomic and epigenomic alterations in pancreatic cancer towards the development of clinical useful prognostic or predictive biomarkers
Laboratory Director:
David Dawson, M.D. Ph.D.
- Associate Professor, Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
- Associate Director, UCLA Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program
- Member, Canary Foundation Pancreas Research Team for Early Cancer Detection
- Member, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Director, UCLA Pancreas Tissue Bank
Laboratory Fellows and Staff:
Anna Rose Lay, B.S., SRA2
Kathleen Kershaw, B.S., GSR
