Bio-X Affiliated Faculty

Dr. Giaccia's research program is focused on translating basic science findings on the role of hypoxia in tumor progression and resistance to therapy to pre-clinical models of cancer that they ultimately hope to take into the clinic.  Their overarching hypothesis is that hypoxia not only makes tumor cells resistant to radiotherapy, chemotherapy and in some cases targeted therapy, but also increases their invasiveness and metastatic potential by inducing a select group of genes involved in tissue remodeling.  The Giaccia lab is rigorously investigating the genomic response of tumor cells to hypoxia and developing new targeted therapies to eliminate hypoxic cells or inhibit the secreted gene products of hypoxic cells that drive malignant progression and metastasis.  They have advanced understanding of gene regulation under hypoxic conditions, used synthetic lethal screening to identify new targets for hypoxia directed therapies, and are developing new diagnostics for hypoxia.  The lab's future goals will be to further define critical effectors of the hypoxic response that are essential for tumor growth and expansion that can be targeted therapeutically.