Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program

The Charles Sawyers Lab

Charles L. Sawyers, MD

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair in Human Oncology and Pathogenesis; Chair, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program

Professor

Dr. Sawyers is an HHMI Investigator searching for molecularly targeted approaches to treat cancer. He has identified cell signaling components critical to the growth of cancer cells in chronic myeloid leukemia, prostate and other cancers, resulting in the development of multiple FDA-approved inhibitors in clinical use today.

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Featured News

Charles L. Sawyers, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Elected to the National Academy of Medicine Council

Charles L. Sawyers, MD, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI); Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair in Human Oncology and Pathogenesis; Chair, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Council, the Academy’s governing and oversight body, for a three-year term.

Lineage plasticity in prostate cancer depends on JAK/STAT inflammatory signaling

Resistance to molecularly targeted therapies is often due to mutations in the drug target, but there is growing recognition of other modes of tumor esc...

A New Approach in Prostate Cancer: Targeting the Cells Surrounding the Tumor

Scientists have found a protein that empowers prostate tumors to resist hormone therapy.

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Publications Highlights

The neuroendocrine transition in prostate cancer is dynamic and dependent on ASCL1. Romero R, Chu T, González-Robles TJ, Smith P, Xie Y, Kaur H, Yoder S, Zhao H, Mao C, Kang W, Pulina MV, Lawrence KE, Gopalan A, Zaidi S, Yoo K, Choi J, Fan N, Gerstner O, Karthaus WR, DeStanchina E, Ruggles KV, Westcott PMK, Chaligné R, Pe’er D, Sawyers CL. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Apr 11:2024.04.09.588557. doi: 10.1101/2024.04.09.588557. PMID: 38645223 Free PMC article. Preprint.

Lineage plasticity in prostate cancer depends on JAK/STAT inflammatory signaling. Chan JM, Zaidi S, Love JR, Zhao JL, Setty M, Wadosky KM, Gopalan A, Choo ZN, Persad S, Choi J, LaClair J, Lawrence KE, Chaudhary O, Xu T, Masilionis I, Linkov I, Wang S, Lee C, Barlas A, Morris MJ, Mazutis L, Chaligne R, Chen Y, Goodrich DW, Karthaus WR, Pe’er D, Sawyers CL. Science. 2022 Sep 9;377(6611):1180-1191. doi: 10.1126/science.abn0478. Epub 2022 Aug 18. PMID: 35981096 Free PMC article.

Tumor Microenvironment-Derived NRG1 Promotes Antiandrogen Resistance in Prostate Cancer. Zhang Z, Karthaus WR, Lee YS, Gao VR, Wu C, Russo JW, Liu M, Mota JM, Abida W, Linton E, Lee E, Barnes SD, Chen HA, Mao N, Wongvipat J, Choi D, Chen X, Zhao H, Manova-Todorova K, de Stanchina E, Taplin ME, Balk SP, Rathkopf DE, Gopalan A, Carver BS, Mu P, Jiang X, Watson PA, Sawyers CL. Cancer Cell. 2020 Aug 10;38(2):279-296.e9. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2020.06.005. Epub 2020 Jul 16. PMID: 32679108 Free PMC article.

Regenerative potential of prostate luminal cells revealed by single-cell analysis. Karthaus WR, Hofree M, Choi D, Linton EL, Turkekul M, Bejnood A, Carver B, Gopalan A, Abida W, Laudone V, Biton M, Chaudhary O, Xu T, Masilionis I, Manova K, Mazutis L, Pe’er D, Regev A, Sawyers CL. Science. 2020 May 1;368(6490):497-505. doi: 10.1126/science.aay0267. PMID: 32355025 Free PMC article.

FOXA1 mutations alter pioneering activity, differentiation and prostate cancer phenotypes. Adams EJ, Karthaus WR, Hoover E, Liu D, Gruet A, Zhang Z, Cho H, DiLoreto R, Chhangawala S, Liu Y, Watson PA, Davicioni E, Sboner A, Barbieri CE, Bose R, Leslie CS, Sawyers CL. Nature. 2019 Jul;571(7765):408-412. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1318-9. Epub 2019 Jun 26. PMID: 31243370 Free PMC article.

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People

Charles L. Sawyers, MD

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair in Human Oncology and Pathogenesis; Chair, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program

Professor

Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program Chair Charles Sawyers develops molecularly targeted cancer therapy.
MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

[email protected]: Email Address
646-888-2138: Office Phone

Members

Wassim Abida, MD, PhD — Wassim Abida
Associate Member

Brett Carver, MD, PhD — Brett Carver
Associate Attending

Daniel (Henry) Kates
Research Technician

Lab Alumni

Philip Watson, PhD — Philip Watson
Assistant Lab Member

Minna Balbas
Senior Director, Clinical Science, Loxo Oncology at Lilly, San Francisco, CA

Rohit Bose, MD, PhD — Rohit Bose
Research Fellow

Ling Cai

Fiona Chen, MD — Fiona Chen
Graduate Student

Daniel C. Danila, MD — Daniel C. Danila
Medical Oncology Fellow

Haley Hieronymus

Senior Research Scientist

Phil Iaquinta, PhD — Phil Iaquinta
Senior Research Scientist

Rajmohan Murali

Senior Research Scientist

Allison Rainer

Emily Schenkein

Research Technician

Neel Shah
Clinical Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA

Jackline Wanjala

Research Technician

John Wongvipat, BS — John Wongvipat
Research Lab Manager

Zeda Zhang
Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Dominique Abita
Assistant to the Chairman

Weiran Feng, Research Fellow — Weiran Feng
Research Associate

Elizabeth Adams Whicher, PhD — Elizabeth Adams Whicher
Research Fellow

Danielle Choi
Senior Animal Husbandry Technician

Jennifer Harris

Fellow

Elizabeth Hoover, BS — Elizabeth Hoover
Senior Research Technician

Taslima Ishmael, BS — Taslima Ishmael
Research Technician

Sarala Kal

Research Technician

Wouter Karthaus, PhD — Wouter Karthaus
Research Assistant

Kayla Lawrence, BS — Kayla Lawrence
Senior Research Technician

Eugine Lee, PhD — Eugine Lee
Research Fellow

Tejasveeta Nadkarni
Senior Research Technician

Kristina Navrazhina

NE WGS Graduate Student

Bin-Zhi Qian

Research Associate

Nazifa Salsabeel

Research Technician

Perianne Smith
Senior Research Technician

Patrick Sullivan, BS — Patrick Sullivan
Research Technician

Dr. Marie Will — Marie Will
Assistant Attending

David Wise, MD, PhD — David Wise
Research Fellow

Valerie Wouters

Graduate Research Assistant

Serina Young
MSKCC Bridge Program Scholar

Andrew Kwon

Jennifer C. King

Mike Burgess

Mercedes Gorre

Derek Welsbie

Randy Chen

Brian Skaggs

Elizabeth Wasmuth
Assistant Professor, UT Health San Antonio, San Antonio, TX

Ingo Mellinghoff, MD — Ingo Mellinghoff
Lab Head

Tweeny R. Kau

Neil Shah

Betsy Katz

Alice Tam

George V. Thomas

John Nicoll

Jin Xu

Research Fellow

Tambudzai Shamu

Research Technician

Kate Ellwood-Yen

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

NCI Alfred G. Knudson Award in Cancer Genetics (2020)
STAT Biomedical Innovation Award (2019)
AACR Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship and Award (2019)
The Scheele Award, Swedish Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (2017)
American Cancer Society Medal of Honor (2017)

BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015)
Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2013)
Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2013)
Science of Oncology Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology (2013)
Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award, American Society of Clinical Investigation (2011)
Member, National Academy of Sciences (2010)
Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award (2009)
Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, Lasker Foundation (2009)
Dorothy Landon-AACR Prize for Translational Cancer Research, American Association for Cancer Research (2009)
Member, Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2008)
David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology (2005)

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

Get in Touch

[email protected]

Lab Head Email
646-888-2138

Office Phone
646-888-3462
The Charles Sawyers Lab X ( Formerly Twitter)

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Charles L. Sawyers discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

Arsenal IO Canada Parent, Inc.
Equity; Professional Services and Activities
BeiGene, Ltd.
Equity; Professional Services and Activities
Blueprint Medicines
Equity; Professional Services and Activities
Column Group
Equity; Professional Services and Activities
Diaprost AB
Intellectual Property Rights
Foghorn Therapeutics
Equity; Professional Services and Activities

Housey Pharmaceutical
Equity; Professional Services and Activities
KSQ Therapeutics
Equity; Professional Services and Activities
Nextech Venture, LTD
Equity; Professional Services and Activities
Novartis
Equity; Fiduciary Role / Position
Oric Pharmaceuticals
Equity; Intellectual Property Rights; Professional Services and Activities
PMV Pharma
Equity; Professional Services and Activities

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].

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