What We Do
The Cancer and Evolution Lab is researching fundamental concepts in neoplastic progression, the processes by which normal tissue becomes cancerous, for the purposes of developing better methods for cancer prevention and therapy. We are applying evolutionary biology, ecology, computational biology and genetics to the understanding of these problems. We are interested in all aspects of evolution in cancer, including the evolution of cells within tumors and normal tissues (“ somatic evolution“) as well as the selective effects of cancer on the evolution of multicellular organisms.
We are developing evolutionary approaches to prevent the evolution of resistance to cancer therapies.
We are discovering how large, long-lived animals such as elephants and whales suppress cancer better than humans (a problem called Peto's Paradox).