Pascale G Charest, PhD

We study how cells migrate in response to external cues, a process that is important to normal physiology and that is also implicated in the onset and progression of cancer. Metastasis, the migration of cancer cells away from the primary tumor to other parts of the body, is by far the major cause of death from cancer. One main reason for the lack of efficient anti-metastasis therapy is lack of understanding of what promotes tumor cell migration. Our goal is to identify key signaling pathways and mechanisms that control cell migration to guide the development of therapeutic strategies preventing the spread of cancer.