May 22
Florian traveled to Madrid where he gave a seminar on the role of transcription factors in melanoma progression at the University Hospital La Paz. He was hosted by former postdoc Olga Vera who now leads her own research group at La Paz.
May 1
Funding for our new NCI R01 began today. This award will support our work on the transcription factor MAFG and its role in melanoma phenotype switching and progression for the next five years.
29 January
Another provisional paper acceptance, this time our study on the oncogenic activity of MAFG through its co-option of the MITF lineage transcription factor. This project took a village: Olga initiated the project, Michael continued it when Olga left, and Zulaida took it across the finish line after Michael left. Xiaonan, Kai, Nicol, and Harini also significantly contributed. Congratulations, everyone, on a nice story and getting this into Nature Communications.
11 January
Our manuscript describing the generation of a multi-step, immune competent genetically engineered mouse mode that closely recapitulates the progression of human uveal melanoma was accepted at Cancer Research. Xiaonan led this project and discovered phenotypic plasticity associated with aggressive, class 2 tumors. Congratulations, Xiaonan!