Molecular Pharmacology Program
The Karuna Ganesh Lab
Research
Metastasis causes >90% of cancer death. The emergence, persistence, therapy resistance and lethality of metastatic cancer is driven by dynamic and tenacious metastasis stem cells (MetScs). The Ganesh lab focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms that underlie the emergence of regenerative plasticity during metastasis. We employ cutting edge patient-derived organoid and mouse models of colorectal cancer, transcriptomic, epigenomic and single cell approaches, and mechanistic studies to: (1) elucidate how tumor invasion and dissemination induce phenotypic plasticity enabling the emergence of pro-metastatic regenerative traits (2) dissect the role of stromal cells, including immune cells, in promoting and constraining MetSC plasticity (3) define key signaling nodes that drive MetSC plasticity and develop therapeutic strategies for targeting such vulnerabilities and (4) collaborate with clinicians to understand mechanisms of therapy resistance in metastasis.
Featured News
People
Karuna Ganesh, MD, PhD
Assistant Member and Medical Oncologist
- Physician-scientist Karuna Ganesh studies stem cell plasticity in metastasis, therapy resistance and tissue regeneration.
- MD, PhD, University of Cambridge (UK)
- ganeshk@mskcc.org
- Email Address
- View physician profile
- Physician profile
Members
MD/PhD Student
Research Scholar
Medical Oncology Fellow
Senior Research Technician
Administrative Assistant
Research Associate
Assistant Attending, Colorectal Service
Medical Oncology Fellow
MD/PhD Student
Research Fellow
Research Technician
Computational Biologist
PhD Student/Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Postdoctoral Fellow
Clinical Research Project Associate
Research Technician
Clinical Fellow
Research Technician
Lab Alumni
PhD student, ETH Zurich
Postdoctoral Fellow, Dana Farber Cancer Institute
MD student, SUNY Downstate Medical School
Research Fellow
Lab Manager
PhD student, Harvard-MIT HST Program
Graduate Student, Weill Cornell Pharmacology Program
Lab SKI Admin II
Administrative Assistant
PhD student, Daniela Quail lab, McGill University, Canada
Administrative Assistant
Surgical Oncology Fellow. Assistant Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Medical Oncology Fellow. Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University
Postdoctoral Research Scholar, MSKCC
PhD Student at Scripps University
Research Scientist at Frequency Therapeutics
Lab Assistant
PhD student, Sabine Taschner-Mandl lab, St Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute
Lab Affiliations
Achievements
- V Foundation Translational Award (2024)
- Metastasis Research Society Sue Eccles Early Career Investigator Award (2024)
- HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar Finalist (2023)
- Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Cancer Research (2022)
- NIH/NCI R37 MERIT Award (2022)
Read more
- HHMI Gilliam Scholar Award(Mahmoud/Ganesh) (2022)
- AACR NextGen Award for Transformative Cancer Research (2020)
- Phillip A. Sharp Innovation Award, Stand Up to Cancer (2022)
- Josie Robertson Investigator (2019-2024)
- Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award (2019)
- Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Medical Scientists (2019)
- NIH/NCI K08 Clinician Scientist Career Development Award (2018)
- Investigator, Stand Up to Cancer Colorectal Cancer Dream Team (2017)
- American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship (2017)
- Shulamit Katzman Endowed Postdoctoral Fellowship (2017)
- Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Young Investigator Award (2016)
- AACR Basic Cancer Research Fellowship (2016)
- MRC-LMB PhD Scholarship (2006)
- Gates Cambridge Scholarship (2004)