Robert Lucito
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., New York University, 1993
Genome microarrays; copy number fluctuation; cancer genomics; amplification; deletion; oncogene; tumor suppressor
email lucito@cshl.edu,
office (516) 422-4138 lab (516) 422-4115 fax (516) 422-4109
Progression of cancer is a multi-step process where alteration of the
genome is the root of the problem. These alterations, whether genetic
or epigenetic, accumulate in precancerous cells until the growth of these
cells goes unchecked and become cancerous. Identification of these alterations
will lead to the discovery of the genes, oncogenes and tumor suppressors
responsible for tumor progression.
We have developed several methods to analyze the cancer genome. One
method identifies regions that have undergone copy number fluctuation.
These regions can be used to identify the genes important to the cancer
cell. A second method identifies epigenetic modifications, which although
are not changes to the genetic sequence can have far reaching effects
on cancer cell. We utilize these methods to gain a complete picture of
the cancer genome in the hope of identifying genes involved in carcinogenesis.
We are currently studying ovarian and pancreatic cancer, with two goals
in mind. First, we will be analyzing a large set of tumors to identify
the genomic regions that are frequently altered to identify gene candidates,
which we will then functionally characterize. Second, we plan to identify
similarities in genetic fingerprints using informatics methods. This data
will be compared to information from clinical collaborators to correlate
tumor fingerprints and disease status, ultimately leading to improved
diagnostic and treatment strategies.
Selected Publications
Pelham, R.J., Rodgers, L., Hall, I., Lucito, R., Nguyen, K.C.Q., Navin,
N., Hicks, J., Mu, D., Powers, S., Wigler, M., and Botstein, D. 2006.
Identification of alterations in DNA copy number in host stromal cells
during tumor progression. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103:
19848–19853.
Zender, L., Spector, M.S., Xue, W., Flemming, P., Cordon-Cardo, C.,
Silke, J., Fan, S., Luk, J.M., Wigler, M., Hannon, G.J., Mu, D., Lucito,
R., Powers, S., and Lowe, S.W. 2006. Identification and validation of
oncogenes in liver cancer using an integrative oncogenomic approach.
Cell 125: 1253–1267.
Lakshmi, B., Hall, I.M., Egan, C., Alexander, J., Leotta, A., Healy,
J., Zender, L., Spector, M.S., Xue, W., Lowe, S.W., Wigler, M., and Lucito,
R. 2006. Mouse genomic representational oligonucleotide microarray analysis:
Detection of copy number variations in normal and tumor specimens.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103: 11234–11239.
Olshen, A., Venkatraman, E.S., Lucito, R., and Wigler, M. 2004. Circular
binary segmentation for the analysis of array-based DNA copy number data.
Biostatistics 4: 557–572.
Lucito, R., Healy, J., Alexander, J., Reiner, A., Esposito, D., Chi,
M., Rodgers, L., Brady, A., Sebat, J., Troge, J., West, J., Rostan, S.,
Nguyen, K.C.Q., Powers, S., Ye, K.Q., Olshen, A., Venkatraman, E., Norton,
L., and Wigler, M. 2003. Microarray analysis of genome copy number variation.
Genome Res. 13: 2291–2305.
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