Cancer Biology & Genetics Program

The Scott Lowe Lab

Research

Scott Lowe
Scott W. Lowe, PhD
Chair, Cancer Biology & Genetics Program, SKI; Chair, Geoffrey Beene Cancer Research Center; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Professor

About the Scott Lowe Lab

Cancer biologist Scott Lowe uses genetically engineered mouse models to study how the genetic alterations in cancer cells contribute to tumorigenesis, alter treatment response, and create molecular vulnerabilities that may be targeted therapeutically.

Cancer arises through an evolutionary process whereby normal cells acquire mutations that erode growth controls. Still, cancer is not an inevitable consequence of mutation, but is kept in check by intrinsic tumor-suppressor programs activated in damaged cells. We study such programs to reveal, and ultimately exploit, the strategies nature uses to combat cancer.

Our early studies focused on cell-intrinsic programs that prevent tumorigenesis (e.g., apoptosis, senescence), and have broadened to cell-extrinsic mechanisms (e.g., immune surveillance). New areas of interest include how tumor-suppressive programs are blunted by environmental factors known to increase cancer incidence (e.g., obesity, aging) and how excessive activation of tumor-suppressive programs (e.g., senescence) can harm function of normal tissue. To gain a mechanistic understanding of these phenomena, we apply mouse models in which cancer arises in an intact tissue ecosystem, which is a long-standing strength of our program. Our affiliation with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center enables us to probe human systems as well.

Another major goal is to harness our knowledge of tumor suppression therapeutically. We and others have shown that reengaging tumor-suppressive programs in established cancer cells can coordinate tumor regression through both cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic components (1-5), so these programs represent attractive strategies for tumor control. With Michel Sadelain, we have also developed a cell therapy approach to remove excessive senescent cells from tissues (6); this therapy may have beneficial effects on cancer and non-cancer pathologies. Advancing these concepts are major goals of our current research. 

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Research Projects

Publications Highlights

Burdziak C, Alonso-Curbelo D, Walle T, Reyes J, Barriga FM, Haviv D, Xie Y, Zhao Z, Zhao CJ, Chen HA, Chaudhary O, Masilionis I, Choo ZN, Gao V, Luan W, Wuest A, Ho YJ, Wei Y, Quail DF, Koche R, Mazutis L, Chaligné R, Nawy T, Lowe SW, Pe’er D.Science. 2023 May 12;380(6645):eadd5327. doi: 10.1126/science.add5327. Epub 2023 May 12.PMID: 37167403 

Chen HA, Ho YJ, Mezzadra R, Adrover JM, Smolkin R, Zhu C, Woess K, Bernstein N, Schmitt G, Fong L, Luan W, Wuest A, Tian S, Li X, Broderick C, Hendrickson RC, Egeblad M, Chen Z, Alonso-Curbelo D, Lowe SW.Cancer Discov. 2023 Feb 6;13(2):432-453. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-22-0528.PMID: 36302222 Free PMC article. 

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People

Scott Lowe

Scott W. Lowe, PhD

Chair, Cancer Biology & Genetics Program, SKI; Chair, Geoffrey Beene Cancer Research Center; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Professor

  • PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
[email protected]
Email Address
646-888-3342
Office Phone
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PDF File

Members

Valentin Barthet
Valentin Barthet

Postdoctoral Researcher

Lynn Boss, MS
Lynn Boss

Administrative Coordinator

Caroline Broderick
Caroline Broderick

Graduate Student

Andrea Chaikovsky
Andrea Chaikovsky

Postdoctoral Researcher

Almudena Chaves Perez
Almudena Chaves Perez

Postdoctoral Researcher

Isabella Del Priore, BS
Isabella Del Priore

Graduate Student

Xin Fang
Xin Fang

Research Technician

Aveline Filliol
Aveline Filliol

Lead Program Manager

Hailey V. Goldberg
Hailey V. Goldberg

Graduate Student

Clemens Hinterleitner
Clemens Hinterleitner

Postdoctoral Researcher

Yu-Jui (Ray) Ho, PhD
Yu-Jui (Ray) Ho

Computational Biologist

Margaret Kennedy
Margaret Kennedy

Graduate Student

Wei Luan, MD
Wei Luan

Senior Research Technician

Domhnall McHugh, PhD
Domhnall McHugh

Postdoctoral Researcher

Riccardo Mezzadra
Riccardo Mezzadra

Postdoctoral Researcher

Nalin Ratnayeke
Nalin Ratnayeke

Postdoctoral Researcher

José Reyes
José Reyes

Postdoctoral Researcher

Corinne L. Rodriguez
Corinne L. Rodriguez

Assistant to Chair

Janelle Simon, BS
Janelle Simon

Mouse Colony Manager

Exequiel Sisso
Exequiel Sisso

Research Technician

Sha Tian, MS
Sha Tian

Senior Research Technician

Anne Trumble-Koncelik
Anne Trumble-Koncelik

Lab Manager

Kaloyan Tsanov, PhD
Kaloyan Tsanov

Postdoctoral Researcher

Zeda Zhang
Zeda Zhang

Postdoctoral Researcher

Changyu Zhu
Changyu Zhu

Postdoctoral Researcher

Lab Alumni
S Millman, MD PhD
Scott Millman

Instructor in Medicine

Direna Alonso Curbelo, PhD
Direna Alonso Curbelo

Junior Group Leader, Cancer Science, IRB Barcelona, Spain

Francisco Barriga, PhD
Francisco (Pancho) Barriga

Group Leader - Cancer Genome Engineering Lab Vall D´Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO)

Iris Appelmann, MD
Iris Appelmann

Physician, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Germany

Corina Amor Vegas
Corina Amor Vegas

CSHL Independent Fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY

Ana Banito, PhD
Ana Banito

Group Leader, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

Benedikt Bosbach, PhD
Benedikt Bosbach

Principal Scientist, CTI, Pfizer Research, New York

Chi-Chao Chen, MD
Chi-Chao Chen

Data Scientist, Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, MA

Hsuan-An Chen
Hsuan-An (Sean) Chen

Postdoctoral Fellow at Rockefeller University, New York, NY

Chong Chen, PhD
Chong Chen

Professor, Sichuan University, Sichuan, China

Lukas Dow, PhD
Lukas Dow

Assistant Professor, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY

Saya Ebbesen, PhD
Saya Ebbesen

Director, Medical & Scientific Strategy, BluPrint Oncology, London

Katerina Hatzi, PhD
Katerina Hatzi

Senior Scientist, Oncology Biomarker Development, Genentech, San Francisco, CA

Shauna Houlihan, PhD
Shauna Houlihan

Associate Director, Liver Research, Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY

Grace  Xiang  Li, MS
Xiang (Grace) Li

Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Chun-Hao Huang, PhD
Chun-Hao Huang

Co-Founder & CEO, Algen Biotechnologies, San Francisco, CA

Edward Kastenhuber, PhD
Edward (Ted) Kastenhuber

Postdoctoral Associate, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY

Thomas Kitzing, PhD
Thomas Kitzing

Senior Research Scientist, Philipps University of Marburg, Institute of Pharmacology, Germany

Josef  Leibold, MD
Josef Leibold

Group Leader, University of Tübingen, Germany

Kiki Yu Liu, PhD
Yu (Kiki) Liu

Professor, Sichuan University, Sichuan, China

Geulah Livshits, PhD
Geulah Livshits

Senior Research Analyst, Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals, Chardan Capital Markets LLC, New York, NY

Bryan Ngo
Bryan Ngo

Group Leader, Altos Labs, San Francisco, CA

Stella Paffenholz, PhD
Stella Paffenholz

Analyst, Nexttech, Boston, MA

Francisco Sánchez-Rivera, PhD
Francisco J. Sánchez-Rivera

Assistant Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Evangelia Loizou, PhD
Evangelia Loizou

Senior Research Associate, Intelligencia, New York, NY

Amaia Lujambio, PhD
Amaia Lujambio

Associate Professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY

Eusebio Manchado Robles, PhD
Eusebio Manchado Robles

Senior Principal Scientist, Novartis, Basel, Switzerland

Allison Mayle, Postdoctoral Researcher
Allison Mayle

Assistant Director, DNALC, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York

Ozlem Mert, PhD
Özlem Aksoy (née Mert)

Senior Scientist, Pfizer, San Francisco, CA

Cornelius Miething, PhD
Cornelius Miething

Group Leader and Medical Fellow, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany

John P. Morris IV, PhD
John P. Morris IV

Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

Kevin P. O'Rourke, MD, PhD
Kevin P. O'Rourke

Investments, Roivant Sciences, New York, NY

Cory Rillahan, MD, PhD
Cory Rillahan

Clinical Fellow, Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA

Marcus Ruscetti, PhD
Marcus Ruscetti

Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cell & Cancer Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA

Anna Saborowski, MD
Anna Saborowski

Physician, Hannover Medical School, Germany

Michael Saborowski, MD
Michael Saborowski

Physician, Hannover Medical School, Germany

Charles J Sherr
Charles J. Sherr

Chair, Tumor Cell Biology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN

Nilgun Tasdemir, PhD
Nilgun Tasdemir

Senior Scientist, Functional Genomics, Target Sciences, Pfizer, New York, NY

Darjus Tschaharganeh, MD
Darjus Tschaharganeh

Group Leader, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany

Susann Weissmueller, PhD
Susann Weissmueller

Strategic Partnering Associate, Roche, Basel, Switzerland

Zhen Zhao, MD PhD
Zhen Zhao

Pathology Resident, The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY

Sarah Ackermann
Sarah Ackermann

Research Specialist, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY

James H. Ahn, MS
James H. Ahn

Research Technician

Erica Anderson, BS
Erica Anderson

Research Technician

Mayerlin Chalarca
Mayerlin Chalarca

Research Technician

Ho-Chung Chen, MS
Ho-Chung Chen

Research Technician

Jonathan Fisher, BS
Jonathan Fisher

Research Technician

Danielle Grace, BS
Danielle Grace

Research Technician

Fernanda Luna, BA
Fernanda Luna

Research Technician

Jamie Plevy, BSE MS
Jamie Plevy

Research Technician

Katarzyna Rybczyk
Katarzyna (Kasia) Rybczyk

Research Technician

Aditya S. Shroff, BS
Aditya S. Shroff

Research Technician

Meredith Taylor, BS
Meredith Taylor

Research Technician

Anahi Tehuitzil
Anahi Tehuitzil

Research Technician

Vincent Tem
Vincent Tem

Research Technician

Alexandra Wuest
Alexandra Wuest

Research Technician

Leah  Zamechek, MS
Leah Zamechek

Laboratory Manager

Lab Affiliations

Lab News & Events

Upcoming event

Lineage Plasticity, the Tumor Microenvironment, and Therapy

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Rockefeller Research Laboratories
430 East 67th Street
Room RRL-116
New York, NY 10065

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

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Lab Resources

Scott Lowe Lab Plasmid and Animal Requests

Request plasmids through Addgene More »

For plasmids not listed on Addgene, please contact our Lab Manager, Anne Trumble-Koncelik, [email protected].

For animal requests, please contact our Mouse Colony Manager, Janelle Simon, [email protected].

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.

Scott W. Lowe discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

  • Algen
    Intellectual Property Rights
  • Blueprint Medicines
    Equity; Professional Services and Activities
  • Cancer Research UK
    Professional Services and Activities
  • Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas
    Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
  • Faeth Therapeutics, Inc
    Equity; Professional Services and Activities (Uncompensated)
  • Fate Therapeutics
    Intellectual Property Rights; Professional Services and Activities
  • Mirimus
    Equity; Professional Services and Activities
  • Oric Pharmaceuticals
    Equity; Professional Services and Activities
  • PMV Pharma
    Equity; Professional Services and Activities
  • Senescea Therapeutics
    Equity; Intellectual Property Rights; 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, 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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