Ken Lau

Cancer Moonshot award to help map tumor progression

A trans-institutional team of researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University has received an $11 million Cancer Moonshot grant to build a single-cell resolution atlas to map out the routes that benign colonic polyps take to progress to colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer among both men and women in the United States.

tree roots

Lineage tracing in the gut

Vanderbilt investigators have developed an algorithm to classify cell types from experimental data, making it possible to understand how organs develop.

Gut response to fluid flow

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered that microvilli – finger-like projections from cells in the intestine – respond to the shear stress of fluid flow to drive a cellular pathway that regulates nutrient balance.

Single-cell study of tumor samples

A new method for analyzing cells in fixed biopsy tissues from patients by guide personalized treatment strategies for cancer.

DISSECTing cell signaling networks

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a new method to study cell signaling networks at single-cell resolution.

Pioneers of Discovery: Investigator driven to divine cellular ecosystem’s rulebook

Ken Lau, Ph.D., a new assistant professor in Cell and Developmental Biology, is out to determine the rules that lead to cells converting from one type to another, for example, when a healthy cell becomes a cancer cell.

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