Select a highlighted state to learn more about the scientists
and projects that Damon Runyon is currently funding.
Scientists by State
California Institute of Technology
Zibo Chen, PhD
"Combinatorial signal classification with a protein-based synthetic neural network"
with Michael Elowitz, PhD
Bo Gu, PhD
"Understanding and engineering combinatorial gene regulation in mammalian cells"
with Michael B. Elowitz, PhD
Stanford University
Lauren E. Cote, PhD
"Constructing one continuous digestive tract, cell by cell"
with Jessica L. Feldman, PhD
Christina L. Hueschen, PhD
"Molecular basis and regulation of apicomplexan parasite motility"
with Alex Dunn, PhD
Victoria Hung, PhD
"Defining the post-translational landscape of ribosomes in control of gene regulation and cell fate"
with Maria Barna, PhD
John C. Janetzko, PhD
"A biophysical approach to studying GRK-GPCR complexes"
with Brian K. Kobilka, MD
Seungsoo Kim, PhD
"Transcription factor cooperation shaping TWIST1 multifunctionality across craniofacial development and cancer metastasis"
with Joanna Wysocka, PhD
Conor J. McClune, PhD
"Resolving plant biosynthesis of therapeutic compounds by systematic perturbation, measurement, and metabolic phenotyping at single-cell scale"
with Elizabeth S. Sattely, PhD, and Polly M. Fordyce, PhD
Minhee Park, PhD
"Structural basis of epigenetic memory at the single cell level"
with Alistair Boettiger, PhD, and Howard Y. Chang, MD, PhD
Fangfei Qu, PhD
"Decoding the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the growth of brain metastases"
with Julien Sage, PhD
Kavita Y. Sarin, MD, PhD
"Genetic contributions and novel therapies for individuals with frequent basal cell cancer"
with Jean Y. Tang, MD, PhD, and Anthony E. Oro, MD, PhD
Kathryn R. Taylor, PhD
"The effect of neuronal activity on pediatric glioma invasion"
with Michelle L. Monje, MD, PhD
Peng Wu, MD, PhD
"Understanding and modulating aberrant differentiation in Hepatoblastoma"
with Roeland Nusse, PhD
Stanford University School of Medicine
Caitlin F. Bell, MD
"Smooth muscle cell plasticity in the tumor microenvironment: another parallel between atherosclerosis and cancer"
with Nicholas J. Leeper, MD, and Irving L. Weissman, MD
Yiming Chen, PhD
"Optical interrogation of neuropeptide and peptide hormones"
with Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD
Shuo Han, PhD
"Spatiotemporally precise manipulation of Hedgehog signaling for tissue regeneration and repair"
with Philip A. Beachy, PhD
Andrew L. Ji, MD
"Cancer cell-extrinsic and intrinsic control of tumor progression and intratumoral heterogeneity"
with Paul A. Khavari, MD, PhD
Christopher P. Lapointe, PhD
"Regulatory roles of the 3' untranslated region in human translation"
with Joseph Puglisi, PhD
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Hokyung K. Chung, PhD
"Next generation adoptive cell therapy: SMARTER T cells for enhanced and durable anti-tumor immunity"
with Susan M. Kaech, PhD
The Scripps Research Institute
Danielle Grotjahn, PhD
"Uncovering structural mechanisms of mitochondrial fragmentation in cancer by cellular cryo-electron tomography"
Haoxin Li, PhD
"Cysteine-modification screening to identify functional and druggable sites in cancer dependencies"
with Benjamin F. Cravatt, PhD
University of California, Berkeley
Tess C. Branon, PhD
"Elucidating mechanisms of bidirectional host-microbiota communication"
with Gregory M. Barton, PhD
Steven W.M. Crossley, PhD
"Mapping targets for cancer therapeutics via Methionine-selective warheads"
with Christopher J. Chang, PhD, and Daniel K. Nomura, PhD
Allison Didychuk, PhD
"Viral mimics of host transcription factors in oncogenic herpesviruses"
with Britt Glaunsinger, PhD
Timothy J. Eisen, PhD
"Mechanistic dissection of Tec kinases in immune-cell signaling"
with John Kuriyan, PhD
Stephanie Gates, PhD
"Decoding the ubiquitin receptor recognition mechanism of the 26S proteasome"
with Andreas Martin, PhD
Jamie Lahvic, PhD
"Uncovering cell non-autonomous mechanisms of tumor suppression"
with Iswar Hariharan, MBBS, PhD
Andrew C. Murley, PhD
"Cell non-autonomous communication of ER stress resistance"
with Andrew G. Dillin, PhD
Katy Ong, PhD
"Long-range tumor-host signaling mechanisms driving paraneoplastic syndromes"
with David Bilder, PhD
Jiao Sima, PhD
"Cellular mechanisms linking sleep disturbance and cancer development"
with Yang Dan, PhD
University of California, Los Angeles
Yajing Gao, PhD
"Characterize the role of non-vesicular cholesterol transport in CD8+ T cell function"
with Peter Tontonoz, MD, PhD
Anusha Kalbasi, MD
"IL13Ra2 Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells for metastatic melanoma"
with Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, and Christine Brown, PhD
Haripriya Vaidehi Narayanan, PhD
"Developing a mechanistic multi-scale framework relating signaling and spatiotemporal dynamics in B-cell affinity maturation and lymphomagenesis"
with Alexander Hoffmann, PhD, and Roy Wollman, PhD
University of California, San Francisco
Collin M. Blakely, MD, PhD
"Mechanisms of incomplete response and primary resistance to the 3rd generation EGFR inhibitor osimertinib in lung cancer"
with Trever G. Bivona, MD, PhD
Benjamin G. H. Guthrie, PhD
"Fluoropyrimidine bioactivation and metabolism by the gut microbiome"
with Peter J. Turnbaugh, PhD
Fangyu Liu, PhD
"Discovery of novel ligands with polypharmacology and selectivity profiles for GPCRs involved in pain"
with Brian Shoichet, PhD
Trang Nguyen, PhD
"Bypassing the unresponsiveness of T cell anergy and exhaustion"
with Arthur Weiss, MD, PhD
David Y. Oh, MD, PhD
"Co-receptors modulating anti-tumor activity of human cytotoxic CD4+ effector cells"
with Lawrence Fong, MD
Tristan Wold Owens, PhD
"Molecular mechanisms of heat shock transcription factor 1 in cancer"
with David Agard, PhD
Cristina Puchades, PhD
"Deciphering the molecular basis for modulation of TMEM16A activity"
with Yifan Cheng, PhD, and Lily Jan, PhD
Zulekha A. Qadeer, PhD
"Targeting TGFb pathway dependencies in Group 3 Medulloblastoma"
with William A. Weiss, MD, PhD
Sukrit Silas, PhD
"Discovery and characterization of virally-encoded proteins of unknown function"
with Joseph Bondy-Denomy, PhD, and Carol A. Gross, PhD
Catherine C. Smith, MD
"RNA Polymerase II as therapeutic target in AML with RAS activation"
with Neil P. Shah, MD, PhD, and Kevin M. Shannon, MD
Adam J. Stevens, PhD
"Synthetic adhesion molecules: redirecting cell infiltration and organization"
with Wendell A. Lim, PhD
Kouki Touhara, PhD
"Investigating chemical signaling between gut enteroendocrine cells and intrinsic primary afferent neurons"
with David Julius, PhD
Yale University
Elizabeth J. Culp, PhD
"Mechanisms and consequences of microbial transformation of dietary xenobiotics in cancer risk"
with Andrew L. Goodman, PhD
Luisa F. Escobar-Hoyos, PhD
"Understanding RNA splicing in tumor-cell adaptation and anti-tumor immunity"
Sigrid Nachtergaele, PhD
"Identifying novel mechanisms of gene expression regulation through mRNA modifications"
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Marco A. Catipovic, PhD
The role of ribosome biogenesis in recycling damaged ribosomes
with Rachel Green, PhD
Jonathan C. Dudley, MD
"Earlier detection of cancer in body cavity fluids through aneuploidy analysis after cell enrichment and partitioning"
with Bert Vogelstein, MD
Boston Children's Hospital
Liudmila Andreeva, PhD
"Making an inflammasome: Structural and biochemical elucidation of NLRP3 inflammasome activation"
with Hao Wu, PhD
Aaron L. Moye, PhD
"Role of Lgr6-expressing Mesenchymal cells in lung cancer initiation and progression"
with Carla Kim, PhD
Esteban A. Orellana Vinueza, PhD
"Role of METTL1-WDR4 tRNA methyltransferase complex in cancer"
with Richard I. Gregory, PhD
Yuxiang Zhang, MD, PhD
"Mechanisms that promote DNA double strand break clusters in brain and liver"
with Frederick W. Alt, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Edmond M. Chan, MD
"Validating a novel synthetic lethal target for microsatellite unstable cancers"
with Adam J. Bass, MD
Eric S. Fischer, PhD
"Novel mechanisms for small molecule induced targeted degradation of RRM family proteins"
Christopher J. Gibson, MD
"The biology and clinical implications of clonal hematopoiesis in cancer patients"
with Benjamin L. Ebert, MD, PhD
Lillian M. Guenther, MD
"Investigation of CITED2 as a novel dependency in Ewing sarcoma"
with Kimberly Stegmaier, MD
Tikvah K. Hayes, PhD
"Systematic genomic and functional analysis of small cell lung cancer"
with Matthew L. Meyerson, MD, PhD
Whitney Johnson, PhD
"Innate immune consequences of nuclear envelope rupture"
with David Pellman, MD
(Peter) Geon Kim, MD
"Elucidating the mechanisms of inflammation in clonal hematopoiesis"
with Benjamin L. Ebert, MD, PhD
Birgit Knoechel, MD, PhD
"Mechanisms of CD8+ T-cell dysfunction and its therapeutic targeting in T-ALL"
with Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, and Catherine J. Wu, MD
Sarah Naomi Olsen, PhD
"Targeted degradation of the MLL-AF9 fusion oncoprotein in acute myeloid leukemia"
with Scott A. Armstrong, MD, PhD
Matthew G. Oser, MD, PhD
"Targeting neuroendocrine differentiation as a novel therapeutic strategy for small cell lung cancer"
with William G. Kaelin, Jr., MD
Harshabad Singh, MBBS
"Epigenetic evolution of pancreatic adenocarcinoma during combination chemotherapy"
with Brian M. Wolpin, MD, MPH, and Andrew J. Aguirre, MD, PhD
Parker L. Sulkowski, PhD
"Investigation of histone secretion in cancer"
with William G. Kaelin, Jr., MD
Collin Tokheim, PhD
"Computationally identifying oncogenic substrates of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in human cancers"
with X. Shirley Liu, PhD, and Eric S. Fischer, PhD
Harvard Medical School
Amelia N. Chang, PhD
"The role of activity-regulated gene expression in human brain evolution"
with Michael E. Greenberg, PhD
Erin E. Duffy, PhD
"Activity-dependent changes in RNA stability as a mechanism for synaptic plasticity"
with Michael E. Greenberg, PhD
Pragya Goel, PhD
"Signaling structure for neuromodulatory coding in the vertebrate striatum"
with Pascal Kaeser, MD
Rachel Segal Greenberg, PhD
"Developing functional diversity in interoceptive circuits"
with Stephen Liberles, PhD
Hannah A. Grunwald, PhD
"Unraveling the role of molecular capacitors that obscure cryptic genetic variants in fish"
with Clifford J. Tabin, PhD
Nagarajan Nandagopal, PhD
"Signal integration by bHLH circuits to enable cell fate decisions"
with Galit Lahav, PhD, and Sean Megason, PhD
Nikit Patel, PhD
"Dissecting the transcriptional logic underlying neural tube development"
with Allon Klein, PhD
Maxim Pimkin, MD, PhD
"Divergent core transcriptional circuitries highlight context-specific vulnerabilities in AML"
with Stuart Orkin, MD
Deepshika Ramanan, PhD
"Identifying functions of regulatory T cell subsets in intestinal inflammation and colorectal cancer"
with Christophe Benoist, MD, PhD
Jonathan G. Van Vranken
“Development and application of proteome-wide thermal shift assays"
with Steven Gygi
Shou-Wen Wang, PhD
"Inferring cell fate choice from clonal and transcriptomic data, with application to hematopoiesis"
with Allon M. Klein, PhD, and Fernando Camargo, PhD
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Madi Y. Cissé, PhD
"Integration on oncogenic signaling and nutrient sensing by mTOR in tumors"
with Brendan D. Manning, PhD
Harvard University
Rongxin Fang, PhD
"Genome-scale imaging of enhancer-promoter interactions in cancer at single cell resolution"
with Xiaowei Zhuang, PhD
Grace E. Kenney, PhD
"New enzymatic routes towards nitrogen-nitrogen bond formation in diverse cytotoxic natural products"
with Emily P. Balskus, PhD
Thomas R. LaBar, PhD
"Elucidating the mechanisms of cellular evolution with experimental evolution"
with Andrew W. Murray, PhD
Massachusetts General Hospital
Albert E. Kim, MD
"Using liquid biopsy and MRI to non-invasively identify therapeutic targets for brain metastases"
with Priscilla K. Brastianos, MD, and Elizabeth R. Gerstner, MD
Stefan Niekamp, PhD
"Understanding the switch: Competition between chromatin remodeler and polycomb repressive complexes"
with Robert Kingston, PhD
Jan P. Schuemann, PhD
“Using extreme dose rates to protect healthy tissue in proton radiation therapy”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Michael E. Birnbaum, PhD
"Decoding and reprogramming tumor-infiltrating T cells by pMHC-targeted lentiviruses"
Jon McGinn, PhD
"Dissecting the genetic networks underlying host subversion during Rickettsia infection"
with Rebecca Lamason, PhD, and Michael Laub, PhD
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Elizabeth A. Boydston, PhD
"Exploring the cell adhesion landscape through host-pathogen interactions"
with Sebastian Lourido, PhD
Daniel H. Lin, PhD
"The influence of RNA and protein conformation on target-directed miRNA degradation"
with David P. Bartel, PhD
Jingchuan Luo, PhD
"Deciphering roles of nuclear-mitochondrial communication in cellular homeostasis"
with Jonathan Weissman, PhD
Alexandra Nguyen, PhD
"Defining the cell type specific cell division requirements in acute myeloid leukemias"
with Iain M. Cheeseman, PhD
University of Michigan
Philip L. Palmbos, MD, PhD
"Targeting TRIM29 to reverse immune checkpoint inhibitor resistance in bladder cancer"
with Joshi J. Alumkal, MD
Princeton University
Caroline Bartman, PhD
"Systems analysis of in vivo tumor and stromal cell metabolism in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma"
with Joshua Rabinowitz, MD, PhD
Andrew A. Bridges, PhD
"Bacterial cell fates: The role of quorum sensing in biofilm patterning"
with Bonnie L. Bassler, PhD
Courtney Ellison, PhD
"The role of type IV pili in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm formation"
with Joshua Shaevitz, PhD, and Zemer Gitai, PhD
Columbia University
Jessie A. Brown, PhD
"Master regulators of drug resistance in relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia"
with Adolfo A. Ferrando, MD, PhD
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Vinod P. Balachandran, MD
"Recombinant interleukin-33 immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer"
with Steven D. Leach, MD, and Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD
Tin Yi Chu, PhD
"Statistical modeling of cell-cell interactions in normal intestine, inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer using single cell and spatial transcriptomics"
with Dana Pe’er, PhD, and Elaine V. Fuchs, PhD
Andrew J. Dunbar, MD
"Interrogating functional contribution of JAK2V617F in the maintenance of myeloproliferative neoplasms"
with Ross L. Levine, MD
Siting Gan, PhD
"In situ single-cell dissection of the tumor-microenvironment interplay mediating brain metastasis"
with Joan Massagué, PhD, and Dana Pe'er, PhD
Karuna Ganesh, MD, PhD
"Leveraging patient-derived organoid models to define the molecular determinants of metastatic regeneration"
with Joan Massagué, PhD
Matthew D. Hellmann, MD
"Refining disease states in response to PD-1 blockade to inform rational immunotherapeutics in NSCLC"
with Charles M. Rudin, MD, PhD, and Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD
Piro Lito, MD, PhD
"Modeling responses to targeted ERK signaling inhibition at the single-cell level"
with Neal X. Rosen, MD, PhD, and Charles M. Rudin, MD, PhD
Kaixian Liu, PhD
"The studies of double-strand break proteins in germline genome transmission"
with Scott Keeney, PhD, and Shixin Liu, PhD
Elli Papaemmanuil, PhD
"Biological and clinical implications of allelic imbalances in clonal hematopoiesis and subsequent risk of therapy related leukemia"
Jose Reyes, PhD
"Dynamics and consequences of complex karyotype evolution in p53 driven acute myeloid leukemia"
with Scott Lowe, PhD, and Dana Pe'er, PhD
Stony Brook University
Benjamin L. Martin, PhD
"Cell cycle regulation of cellular behaviors associated with cancer metastasis"
The Rockefeller University
Aleksey Chudnovskiy, PhD
"Defining dendritic cell-T cell interaction history within the tumor microenvironment using enzymatic labeling"
with Gabriel D. Victora, PhD
Gregory P. Donaldson, PhD
"Cross-talk between B lymphocytes and bacteria in the maintenance of a non-inflammatory mucosal microbiome"
with Daniel Mucida, PhD
Catherine A. Freije, PhD
"Investigating the role of fitness and host pressure in shaping hepatitis B diversity"
with Charles M. Rice, PhD
Anita Gola, PhD
"A spatially patterned stem cell and immune cell barrier at the skin surface"
with Elaine V. Fuchs, PhD
Gokhan Unlu, PhD
"Targeting cancer nutrient limitations using dietary interventions"
with Kivanc Birsoy, PhD
Weill Cornell Medicine
Christopher E. Barbieri, MD, PhD
"Subtype-specific modes of clinical and molecular progression in prostate cancer"
with Lewis C. Cantley, PhD
John R. Ferrarone, MD
"Seeking and evaluating novel therapeutic targets in human lung adenocarcinomas with loss-of-function mutations in LKB1"
with Harold E. Varmus, MD
Eric E. Gardner, PharmD, PhD
"Interrogating lung adenocarcinoma transformation to small cell lung cancer at single cell resolution"
with Harold E. Varmus, MD
Duke University
Lawrence A. David, PhD
"Personalized prebiotics to optimize microbiota metabolism and improve transplant outcomes"
Nicholas C. DeVito, MD
"Investigating the role of EMT-mediated dendritic cell tolerization in checkpoint inhibitor resistance"
with Brent A. Hanks, MD, PhD
Yvonne M. Mowery, MD, PhD
"Evaluating and targeting pathways of treatment resistance in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma"
with David G. Kirsch, MD, PhD
Oregon Health & Science University
Jeremy Copperman, PhD
"Whole-cell modeling for the prediction and control of micro-environmentally regulated proliferative and migratory variability"
with Daniel M. Zuckerman, PhD, and Joe W. Gray, PhD
University of Pennsylvania
Alexander C. Huang, MD
"Shared antigen and neoantigen-specific T cells in checkpoint blockade efficacy and toxicity"
with Gerald P. Linette, MD, PhD
Balint Z. Kacsoh, PhD
"Influence of social environment on cancer progression"
with Shelley Berger, PhD, and Christopher J. Lengner, PhD
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Katherine E. Gadek, PhD
"Defining endothelial progenitor cell pliancy in rhabdomyosarcoma"
with Mark Hatley, MD, PhD, and Stacey Ogden, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Natalie Vokes, MD
"Dissecting tumor intrinsic and immune drivers of resistance to therapy in non-small cell lung cancer"
with John V. Heymach, MD, PhD
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Todd A. Aguilera, MD, PhD
"Immunologic responses to short course radiotherapy in rectal adenocarcinoma and the impact of CD40 agonist immunotherapy"
with Robert D. Timmerman, MD, and Yang-Xin Fu, MD, PhD
Gabriel Muhire Gihana, PhD
"Cell morphological modulation of oncogenic Ras signaling"
with Gaudenz Danuser, PhD
David G. McFadden, MD, PhD
"Identifying metabolic vulnerabilities in Hürthle cell carcinoma"
with Steven L. McKnight, PhD, and Ralph J. DeBerardinis, MD, PhD
University of Utah
Matthew P. Miller, PhD
"Deciphering tension-dependent stabilization of kinetochore-microtubule interactions"
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Edie I. Crosse, PhD
"Determining the role of stem cell heterogeneity in clonal evolution of hematologic malignancy"
with Lev Silberstein, MD, PhD, and Irwin D. Bernstein, MD
Tal Einav, PhD
"Quantifying a polyclonal immune repertoire's ability to bind influenza"
with Jesse D. Bloom, PhD, and Jonathan W. Yewdell, MD, PhD
Jay F. Sarthy, MD, PhD
"Characterization of the epigenomic landscape of diffuse midline gliomas"
with Steven Henikoff, PhD, and James Olson, MD, PhD
University of Washington
Jean-Benoît Lalanne, PhD
"At-scale dissection of developmental enhancers with single-cell reporters"
with Jay A. Shendure, MD, PhD
Junhong Choi, PhD
"Uncovering cellular development in cancer through precise genome editing"
with Jay A. Shendure, MD, PhD
