Welcome to the Wolpin-Nowak Lab

Our research group investigates the biology and risk factors associated with pancreatic and other gastrointestinal cancers. We aim to improve outcomes for patients with these diseases both by identifying cancer earlier, when the chance for a cure is greater, and by improving therapy. We focus on learning from cancer patients by studying human biospecimens so that our discoveries can be rapidly and confidently translated into improved clinical care.

Our laboratory members include epidemiologists, biostatisticians, pathologists, data scientists, molecular biologists, and clinical researchers, all of whom contribute their unique expertise to our lab’s work. We employ a broad variety of analysis approaches and techniques in our laboratory, including population-scale epidemiology studies, digital pathology, genomic sequencing, and spatial transcriptomic and protein profiling. Our tissue profiling work encompasses both clinical trial correlative studies and landscape-directed discovery studies. We work closely with the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center Biobank to acquire blood, tissue, and other sample types from patients at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Finally, we routinely collaborate both with investigators at Dana-Farber and across the nation to study pancreatic cancer using model systems and to conduct and lead clinical trials.