Investigator, Other (M) KFCCR Faculty, Mass General Research Institute

Assistant Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School

breast cancer; breast cancer biomarkers; breast cancer clinical trials; cell cycle; chromatin; epigenetics; retinoblastoma protein

Cell Cycle deregulation is a hallmark of cancer. The Sanidas laboratory examines the cell cycle to discover cancer cell vulnerabilities that can lead to novel therapeutic approaches. Our research primarily focuses on the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein (RB), a key regulator of the cell cycle that prevents cells from dividing. RB’s activity is controlled by cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) that phosphorylate and inactivate RB to enable cell proliferation. Although RB has been described as a universal cell cycle regulator, its tumor suppressor activity is context-specific. Loss of RB is answered to a particular group of human tumors, and CDK inhibitors have provided therapeutic benefits to a relatively small number of cancer patients. The Sanidas laboratory aims to understand the molecular complexity of RB and identify the context-specific implications of its inactivation in human malignancies. Our goal is to optimize the advantages of the recently developed selective CDK inhibitors, which target the pharmacological activation of RB.

List of selected publications:

1.      Sanidas I, Lawrence MS, & Dyson NJ. Patterns in the tapestry of chromatin-bound RB. Trends Cell Biol. 2023 Aug 28:S0962-8924(23)00156-3.
2.      Krishnan B, Sanidas I*, Dyson NJ*. Seeing is believing: the impact of RB on nuclear organization. Cell Cycle, 2023 May 3;1-10. 
3.      Sanidas I, Lee H, Rumde PH, Boulay G, Morris R, Golczer G, Stanzione M, Hajizadeh S, Zhong J, Ryan MB, Corcoran RB, Drapkin BJ, Rivera MN, Dyson NJ, Lawrence MS. Chromatin-bound RB targets promoters, enhancers, and CTCF-bound loci and is redistributed by cell-cycle progression. Mol Cell. 2022 Aug 12:S1097-2765(22)00710-9. 
4.      Krishnan B, Yasuhara T, Rumde P, Stanzione M, Lu C, Lee H, Lawrence MS, Zou L, Nieman LT, Sanidas I*, Dyson NJ*. Active RB causes visible changes in nuclear organization. J Cell Biol. 2022 Mar 7;221(3):e202102144. 
5.      Sanidas I, Morris R, Fella KA, Boukhali M, Tai EC, Ting DT, Lawrence MS, Hass W and Dyson NJ. "A code of mono-phosphorylation modulates the function of RB." Mol Cell 2019, Mar 7;73(5):985-1000.

* denotes equal contribution

Sanidas Laboratory Members

Kazi Islam, PhD
Connor G. McGrath
Ioannis Sanidas, PhD
Nicole J. Smith
Alice Zheng