Research at the Polyak Lab

Research in the laboratory is dedicated to the molecular analysis of human breast cancer. Our goal is to better understand the molecular evolution of human breast tumors and use this information to improve the clinical management of breast cancer patients.

Our four main areas of interest are: 

1. How to accurately predict breast cancer risk and prevent breast cancer initiation or progression from in situ to invasive disease
2. Better understand drivers of tumor evolution with special emphasis on metastatic progression and therapeutic resistance
3. Novel therapeutic targets in breast cancer with particular focus on breast cancers such as triple negative breast cancer and inflammatory breast cancer
4. The interaction of the tumor microenvironment with components such as the immune response, that may be key to new treatments. 

All of our studies start with analyzing samples from breast cancer patients or rodent tumor models, formulate hypotheses based on our observations, use experimental models to test these, and then translate our findings back into clinical care.