Investigator, Instructor (M) Shriners Hospitals for Children - Boston, Mass General Research Institute

Instructor in Surgery Harvard Medical School

bone marrow; cell separation; electromagnetic fields; fourier analysis; hematopoietic stem cells; mass spectrometry; microfluidic analytical techniques; mutant proteins; neoplastic cells circulating; stromal cells; superoxide dismutase

Dr. Karabacak's work is at the interface of mass spectrometry, microfluidics and medicine. Current topics include:

1.) Defining tumor-stromal cell interactions across metastatic cascade. Cancer originally confined to the primary site eventually disseminates through the blood to distal sites including the bone, lung, liver and brain and continues to evolve, leading to cellular and molecular heterogeneity between tumor cells.

This heterogeneity causes pharmaceutical treatments to be less effective and consequently tumors to recur. Working closely with researchers at the Cancer Center, Dr. Karabacak's research aims to better understand this dynamic biological adaptation during metastatic cascade and resulting heterogeneity via single-cell proteomic analysis.

2.) Deconvoluting rare bone marrow stromal progenitor cell subsets. The tissue microenvironment surrounding hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells is complex, containing various cell types that support bone marrow function and bone maintenance.

In many studies, these stromal cells are poorly defined, since they are rare and heterogeneous. Dr. Karabacak is working closely with researchers at the Center for Regenerative Medicine to help define these populations and decipher their behavior in steady-state and in functionally-relevant stress conditions.