Our lab's overarching goals are to investigate mechanisms that drive the metastatic spread of cancers, elucidate the role of the tumor microenvironment in response to therapy, and uncover new therapeutic targets. The lab utilizes melanoma as a model system to investigate the following:
- Tumor suppressive functions of CADM1 that regulate melanoma invasion, anchorage-independent cell death, and co-stimulate immune-mediated cytotoxic responses. These studies may highlight CADM1 as a diagnostic indicator for prognosis and could open new therapeutic avenues to combat melanoma metastasis.
- How post-translational modifications influence tumor progression and immune cell recognition, and how they can be leveraged as diagnostic features or exploited to improve tumor immune response.
- Mutations in the RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK pathway that drive many forms of human malignancies. In particular, the serine/threonine kinase BRAF is mutated in ~8% of all cancers. Targeted inhibitors have been designed to block aberrant BRAF, but their efficacy is limited to a subset of mutant BRAF tumors due to differences in cellular signaling. We want to understand the mechanisms governing the varied responses to inhibitor treatment.
- Immune-mediated cell death, specifically pyroptosis, and how these mechanisms can be leveraged to improve therapeutic efficacy in tumors containing resistant cells.
- Biallelic inactivation or deletion of BAP1 that is present in ~80% of metastatic uveal melanoma patients. We want to further understand the interplay of the liver microenvironment on uveal melanoma metastases.

Time-lapse imagery of melanoma spheroid invading into collagen.
Learn More About Our Research
Hartsough Lab Staff
Alyssa Sanders, PhD Candidate
Research Interests:
- Understanding why BAP-1 mutant uveal melanoma predominantly metastasizes to the liver
- Role of liver microenvironment on survival of uveal melanoma cells
Amirali Amirfallah, PhD Candidate
Research Interests:
- The effect of post-translational glycosylation on the tumor microenvironment
- How glycosylation of CADM1 affects its signaling and adhesion characteristics
Elizabeth Homer, PhD Student
Research Interests:
- Effects of aging on cutaneous melanoma brain metastasis
Kayla Gallant, Lab Manager
Research Interests:
- How post-translational glycosylation impacts cancer progression and tumor microenvironment
Hartsough Lab Alumni
Maria Cavallo, PhD
Defended June 2024
Title: Unveiling Resistance Mechanisms and Improving Therapeutic Outcomes in Mutant BRAF V600E Cancers
Research Interests:
- BRAF inhibitor-induced immunogenic cell death in melanoma brain metastases
- The role of CNS phagocytes in melanoma brain metastases
- Drug resistance and relapse in melanoma
Camille Cunanan, PhD
Defended November 2024
Title: BAP1 loss affords lipotoxicity resistance in uveal melanoma
Research Interests:
- Mutant BAP1 in liver metastasis of uveal melanoma
- The role of lipid metabolism and ferroptosis inhibition in uveal melanoma
- The interplay between metastatic uveal melanoma and the liver microenvironment
Jessie Smart – Lab Technician
Julia Oleksak, MS
Zonguann Huang, MS
Jacob Yo, MS
Publications
“Mcl-1 mediates intrinsic resistance to RAF inhibitors in mutant BRAF papillary thyroid carcinoma”
Cavallo, M.R., Yo, J.C., Gallant, K.C. et al.
Cell Death Discov. 10, 175 (2024)
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