Memorial Hospital Research Laboratories

The Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue Lab

Research

Christine A. Iacobuzio-Donahue, MD, PhD

David M. Rubenstein Center Chair for Pancreatic Cancer Research; Director, Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research

Professor

Our lab investigates the fundamental evolutionary mechanisms underlying metastasis using pancreatic cancer as our model tumor type. Metastasis is the result of a series of biological hurdles subject to Darwinian selection including the birth of metastasis-enabled cells within a heterogeneous primary tumor microenvironment, intravasation of these cells into a functional vascular bed, survival in the circulation, extravasation from the vasculature, and establishment of an autonomous cell population within the newly encountered foreign microenvironment.

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Featured News

Q&A

MSK pathologist Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue

What Evolution Can Tell Us about How Cancer Spreads

Meet Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue, a physician-scientist who studies cancer metastasis and is collaborating on genetics research with scientists at the American Museum of Natural History.

Finding

Two Studies Shed Light on Genetics of Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

New research of metastatic pancreatic cancer has shown that the same mutations are involved in driving both the primary tumor and the metastases.

Publications Highlights

Heterogeneity of pancreatic cancer metastases in a single patient revealed by quantitative proteomics. Kim MS, Zhong Y, Yachida S, Rajeshkumar NV, Abel ML, Marimuthu A, Mudgal K, Hruban RH, Poling JS, Tyner JW, Maitra A, Iacobuzio-Donahue CA*, Pandey A. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2014 Jun 3. pii: mcp.M114.038547. *co-senior author

Clinical significance of the genetic landscape of pancreatic cancer and implications for identification of potential long-term survivors. Yachida S, White CM, Naito Y, Zhong Y, Brosnan JA, Macgregor-Das AM, Morgan RA, Saunders T, Laheru DA, Herman JM, Hruban RH, Klein AP, Jones S, Velculescu V, Wolfgang CL, Iacobuzio-Donahue CA. Clin Cancer Res. 2012 Nov 15;18(22):6339-47.

Computational modeling of pancreatic cancer reveals kinetics of metastasis suggesting optimum treatment strategies. Haeno H, Gonen M, Davis MB, Herman JM, Iacobuzio-Donahue CA*, Michor F. Cell. 2012 Jan 20;148(1-2):362-75. *co-senior author

Distant metastasis occurs late during the genetic evolution of pancreatic cancer. Yachida S, Jones S, Bozic I, Antal T, Leary R, Fu B, Kamiyama M, Hruban RH, Eshleman JR, Nowak MA, Velculescu VE, Kinzler KW, Vogelstein B, Iacobuzio-Donahue CA. Nature. 2010 Oct 28;467(7319):1114-7.

DPC4 gene status of the primary carcinoma correlates with patterns of failure in patients with pancreatic cancer. Iacobuzio-Donahue CA, Fu B, Yachida S, Luo M, Abe H, Henderson CM, Vilardell F, Wang Z, Keller JW, Banerjee P, Herman JM, Cameron JL, Yeo CJ, Halushka MK, Eshleman JR, Raben M, Klein AP, Hruban RH, Hidalgo M, Laheru D. J Clin Oncol. 2009 Apr 10;27(11):1806-13.

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People

Christine A. Iacobuzio-Donahue, MD, PhD

David M. Rubenstein Center Chair for Pancreatic Cancer Research; Director, Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research

Professor

Physician-scientist Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue studies the genomics and cell biology of pancreatic and other solid tumors as it relates to subclonal evolution, tumor progression, and metastasis.
MD, PhD, Boston University

View physician profile: Physician profile

Members

Agustin Cardenas III

Research Assistant

Cristian Cruz

Senior Research Technician

Marc Hilmi

Research Fellow

Jungeui Hong

Senior Research Scientist

Rajya Kappagantula

Research Assistant

Elias-Ramzey Karnoub

Senior Research Technician

Maria Nina Lao

Research Technician

Nicolas Lecomte

Senior Research Scientist

Helen Martirosova

Research Fellow

Jerry Melchor

Lead Program Manager

Katelyn Mullen

GSK Graduate Student

Katelyn Mullen

Informatics Specialist II, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Naaz Nasar

Research Fellow

Wungki Park

Assistant Attending

Wungki Park

Assistant Attending

Zeynep Tarcan

Senior Research Scientist

Shigeaki Umeda

Senior Research Scientist

Haochen Zhang

GSK Graduate Student

Alexandra Miller

Assistant Attending

Marc Attiyeh

Research Fellow

Priscilla Baez

Research Project Associate

Jun Fan

Research Associate

Akimasa Hayashi

Visiting Investigator

Jinlong Huang

Research Fellow

Zachary Kohutek

Assistant Attending Radiation Oncologist

Alicia Maisonet

Program Assistant

Alvin Makohon-Moore

Research Associate

Breanna McMahon

Research Technician

Chelsea Michael

Clinical Coordinator

Salvador Suarez Naranjo

Research Associate

Hope Narozniak

Research Technician

Derwin Pena

Morgue Attendant

Hitomi Sakamoto

Research Fellow

Efsevia Vakiani

Assistant Attending Pathologist

Liguo Zhang

Senior Research Technician

Yi Zhong

Research Associate

Amanda Zucker

Research Technician

Achievements

Team Science Award, American Association for Cancer Research (2012)
Ramzi Cotran Young Investigator Award, United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (2009)
AACR-Barletta Foundation Career Development Award in Translational Pancreatic Cancer Research (2005)
Member, Alpha Omega Alpha (2002)
American Society of Clinical Investigators (2015)

Elected to American Association of University Pathologists (Pluto Society)

Open Positions

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Disclosures

Members of the MSK Community 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. These activities outside of MSK further our mission, provide productive collaborations, and promote the practical application of scientific discoveries.

MSK requires doctors, faculty members, and leaders 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. Not all disclosed interests and relationships present conflicts of interest. MSK reviews all disclosed interests and relationships to assess whether a conflict of interest exists and whether formal COI management is needed.

Christine A. Iacobuzio-Donahue discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

Bristol-Myers Squibb
Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)

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, 2024 through disclosure submission in spring 2025). 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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