Three new faculty will advance breast cancer research at the Harper Cancer Research Institute (HCRI) as they join Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend (IUSM-SB) and University of Notre Dame in summer 2012.
- Laurie Littlepage, Ph.D., is joining Notre Dame as an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry. She is completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.
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Jenifer R. Prosperi, Ph.D., is coming to IUSM-SB from the University of Chicago, where she has held a post-doctoral fellowship. She will be an assistant professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.
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Siyuan Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., will be an assistant professor of biological sciences at Notre Dame. He has held a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
HCRI is a partnership of IUSM-SB and Notre Dame whose members collaborate across disciplines and institutions to seek the cause of and cures for cancer.
Littlepage, Prosperi and Zhang examine tumor progression, metastasis and chemoresistance during breast cancer progression. Littlepage’s research team also examines prostate cancer.
Littlepage’s research is grounded in understanding the mechanisms of cancer progression and in identifying therapies that prevent or reverse cancer in patients. She develops and uses integrated mouse models and genome-wide association studies to understand the contributions of specific genes in vivo at multiple points in cancer progression, spanning from normal mammary development to tumor progression and metastasis and chemotherapy resistance. Her doctorate in Cell & Developmental Biology is from Harvard.
Originally published by at harpercancer.nd.edu on February 27, 2012.