Assistant Investigator Cancer Center, Mass General Research Institute

Assistant Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School

biochemistry; cell biology; cellular quiescence; centromere; chemotherapy resistance; chromatin; chromatin binding proteins; chromatin biology; chromatin modifying proteins; chromatin remodeling proteins; computational biology; epigenetic inheritance; fission yeast; genetics; genome organization; genome stability; heterochromatin; noncoding rnas; rna-induced silencing complex; stress response; transcriptional coherence; transcriptional silencing; tumor quiescence Research in the Motamedi Lab focuses on a molecular memory system, called epigenetics which enables cells to establish stable fates during development or resist stress in response to environmental changes. Epigenetic mechanisms impart cells with new properties often by turning groups of genes on and off at a given time. A focus of the lab is studying the molecular machinery that permits cells to transmit this information (which genes are on and which genes are off) to progeny cells upon division. Another focus for the lab is cellular dormancy. Recently, scientists have discovered that a major reason for cancer resistance and recurrence is that a small number of dormant cancer cells originating from the primary tumor disperse throughout the body. These cancer cells are long-lived and can exit dormancy forming tumors years after remission. None of the existing therapies target dormant cancer cells. By studying dormancy, we strive to develop drugs that specifically neutralize these cells, which may help in addressing this unmet need in cancer therapy.