Roychowdhury Lab

About the Lab

Our Mission

Application of genomics to improve patient care with novel therapies.

To accomplish this mission, we have a multidisciplinary team including the following fields: genomics, cancer biology, bioinformatics, medical oncology and pathology.

We rely heavily on teamwork, new ideas, an open-minded environment to reach our goals.

Research

“Precision cancer medicine” refers to a new standard of cancer care based on genomics that is making its way into the clinic. The word “precision" refers to the use of genomic technologies that provide additional information to aid cancer diagnosis and treatment. Precision cancer medicine is already having a profound influence on clinical cancer care and clinical trial design, and it likely will move us away from the current organ based classification of cancer to a molecular-based taxonomy.

Research conducted by the Roychowdhury Lab includes:

• Basic cancer research
• Translational cancer genomics
• Cancer driver log
• Molecular diagnostics

We are a multidisciplinary group with team members who have expertise in diverse fields including cancer genomics, computational biology/computer science, cancer biology, drug development, molecular diagnostics and medical oncology.

Basic cancer research is about the core principles of cancer, while translational cancer research is about using this knowledge to take care of patients through clinical trials. Together, as a multi-disciplinary team, we:

• Evaluate and care for patients through clinical trials
• Study the genetics of cancer using next generation sequencing
• Match patients to new smart drugs in trials
• Evaluate the benefit from such therapies
• Study how drugs affect the cancer
• Strive to develop rational combination treatments for patients

Funding

We are grateful to the government and foundation efforts that strive to end cancer and work tirelessly to fund much-needed cancer research. The following are agencies that have supported our team directly:

• Prostate Cancer Foundation, Young Investigator Award
• Prostate Cancer Foundation, Special Creativity Award
• American Cancer Society, Mentored Research Scholar Grant
• Fore Cancer Research Foundation
• Pelotonia
• Pelotonia Idea Grant
• National Cancer Institute, Experimental Therapeutic Network UM1
• National Human Genome Research Institute
• American Lung Association
• NCI UH2 award to develop diagnostics with RNA sequencing
• NCI UH2 award to develop novel diagnostics for detecting microsatellite instability (MSI-H)

There are many questions and problems that we must solve for cancer research, and there are very few resources available to fund cancer research. While funding from National Institutes of Health and foundations can fund a fraction of research, we rely on philanthropic donations to further cancer research.

Donations are especially important since the National Institutes of Health and Foundations are less likely to fund high risk ideas, which have the greatest potential to change how we approach cancer.

Make a Donation to the Roychowdhury Lab