Ghassan Mouneimne, PhD

Associate Professor, Cellular & Molecular Medicine

Shared Resource Director, Microscopy

Links

Biography

Dr. Mouneimne earned his PhD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, studying the migratory behavior of invading cancer cells in Dr. John Condeelis’ laboratory. During his postdoctoral training with Dr. Joan Brugge at Harvard Medical School, he pursued new approaches for studying the role of the cytoskeleton in regulating cancer cell invasion, including strategies combining in vitro and in vivo modeling of human cancers with bioinformatic and histological analyses of clinical samples. In his own laboratory, Dr. Mouneimne focuses on understanding the plasticity of invading cancer cells in complex heterogeneous tumor microenvironments, with the goal of developing therapies that are more effective in blocking metastasis. Dr. Mouneimne is currently a tenured associate professor in Cellular and Molecular Medicine.

Cancer Focus

Research in our laboratory is focused on understanding how aberrant structural organization of the cytoskeleton influences cellular behavior, such as cancer cell invasion and metastasis. The regulation of cellular behavior by structural remodeling of the cytoskeleton exemplifies the paradigm of “structure regulates function” at the cellular level. Our goal is to identify distinct actin cytoskeletal architectures that impact the response of cancer cells to well-known genetic and microenvironmental factors during cancer progression.

Research Program Role

Cancer Biology Program

Display Name
Ghassan Mouneimne, PhD

Publications

Collins SE, Wiegand ME, Werner AN, Brown IN, Mundo MI, Swango DJ, Mouneimne G, Charest PG. 2023. Ras-mediated activation of mTORC2 promotes breast epithelial cell migration and invasion. Rosenblatt J, editor. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 34(2). doi:10.1091/mbc.e22-06-0236.

Kwak E-A, Pan CC, Ramonett A, Kumar S, Cruz-Flores P, Ahmed T, Ortiz HR, Lochhead JJ, Ellis NA, Mouneimne G, et al. 2022. βIV-spectrin as a stalk cell-intrinsic regulator of VEGF signaling. Nature Communications. 13(1). doi:10.1038/s41467-022-28933-1.

Truong DD, Kratz A, Park JG, Barrientos ES, Saini H, Nguyen T, Pockaj B, Mouneimne G, LaBaer J, Nikkhah M. 2019. A Human Organotypic Microfluidic Tumor Model Permits Investigation of the Interplay between Patient-Derived Fibroblasts and Breast Cancer Cells. Cancer Res. 79:3139–3151. doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-18-2293.

Puleo JI, Parker SS, Roman MR, Watson AW, Eliato KR, Peng L, Saboda K, Roe DJ, Ros R, Gertler FB, et al. 2019. Mechanosensing during directed cell migration requires dynamic actin polymerization at focal adhesions. J Cell Biol. 218:4215–4235. doi:10.1083/jcb.201902101.

Padilla-Rodriguez M, Parker SS, Adams DG, Westerling T, Puleo JI, Watson AW, Hill SM, Noon M, Gaudin R, Aaron J, et al. 2018. The actin cytoskeletal architecture of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer cells suppresses invasion. Nat Commun. 9:2980. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05367-2.

Peela N, Sam FS, Christenson W, Truong D, Watson AW, Mouneimne G, Ros R, Nikkhah M. 2016. A three dimensional micropatterned tumor model for breast cancer cell migration studies. Biomaterials. 81:72–83. doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2015.11.039.

Mouneimne G, Hansen SD, Selfors LM, Petrak L, Hickey MM, Gallegos LL, Simpson KJ, Lim J, Gertler FB, Hartwig JH, et al. 2012. Differential remodeling of actin cytoskeleton architecture by profilin isoforms leads to distinct effects on cell migration and invasion. Cancer Cell. 22:615–30. doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2012.09.027.