Dr. Lauren A. Byers

Regular Member

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology

Research Interests:

• Lung cancer
• Head and neck cancer
• Predictive biomarkers
• Proteomic profiling (reverse phase protein array)
• EMT
• DNA repair (PARP1)

My laboratory research is directed at using high-throughput profiling techniques to identify candidate predictive biomarkers and potential new therapeutic targets in lung and head and neck cancers.  Specific markers of interest which are being further investigated as therapeutic targets include the DNA repair protein PARP1 in small cell lung cancer and the tyrosine kinase Ax1 in non-small cell lung cancer and head and neck cancers.

Projects/Techniques: Investigations of these targets and predictive biomarkers primarily involve in vitro procedures with target knockdown by siRNA, drug sensitivity screening, and molecular profiling by reverse phase protein array, SNP array, mRNA microarray, and various molecular biology techniques.  Xenograft models are used to assess in vivo drug response and mechanisms of action.

Selected Publications:

Rosenwald A, Wright G, Chan WC, Connors JM, Campo E, Fisher RI, Gascoyne RD, Muller-Hermelink HK, Smeland EB, Giltnane JM, Hurt EM, Zhao H, Averett L, Yang L, Wilson WH, Jaffe ES, Simon R, Klausner RD, Powell J, Duffey PL, Longo DL, Greiner TC, Weisenburger DD, Sanger WG, Dave BJ, Lynch JC, Vose J, Armitage JO, Montserrat E, López-Guillermo A, Grogan TM, Miller TP, LeBlanc M, Ott G, Kvaloy S, Delabie J, Holte H, Krajci P, Stokke T, Staudt LM. The use of molecular profiling to predict survival after chemotherapy for diffuse large-B-cell lymphoma. N Engl J Med 346(25):1937-47, 6/2002.

Byers LA, Sen B, Saigal B, Diao L, Wang J, Nanjundan M, Cascone T, Mills GB, Heymach JV, Johnson FM. Reciprocal regulation of c-Src and STAT3 in non-small cell lung cancer. Clin Cancer Res 15(22):6852-61, 11/2009. e-Pub 10/2009. PMCID: PMC2935176.

Byers LA, Holsinger FC, Kies MS, William WN, El-Naggar AK, Lee JJ, Hu J, Lopez A, Tran HT, Yan S, Du Z, Ang KK, Glisson BS, Raso MG, Wistuba II, Myers JN, Hong WK, Papadimitrakopoulou V, Lippman SM, Heymach JV. Serum signature of hypoxia-regulated factors is associated with progression after induction therapy in head and neck squamous cell cancer. Mol Cancer Ther 9(6):1755-63, 6/2010. e-Pub 6/2010. PMCID: PMC2913168.

Nanjundan M*, Byers LA*, Carey MS, Siwak DR, Raso MG, Diao L, Wang J, Coombes KR, Roth JA, Mills GB, Wistuba II, Minna JD, Heymach JV. Proteomic profiling identifies pathways dysregulated in non-small cell lung cancer and an inverse association of AMPK and adhesion pathways with recurrence. J Thorac Oncol 5(12):1894-904, 12/2010.

Additional Publications