The Rose Lab
Lab Member: Dr. Jessica Drenzek, PhD
Lab Member: James Spencer
The Rose Lab
Our laboratory is focused on finding improved treatments for ovarian cancer. Each year there are 24,000 new cases and close to 15,000 deaths from ovarian cancer in the United States. While improvements in surgery and chemotherapy delivery have improved outcomes over the years, only 15-20% of advanced stage ovarian cancer patients remain cured. There is a clear need for new and improved therapies for women with this deadly disease. Our lab is committed to searching for new pathways that are active in ovarian cancer in an effort to identify new therapeutic options for women.
Dr. Rose’s major areas of clinical interest focus on quality of life and survivorship issues of women with gynecologic malignancies as well as clinical trials of novel therapeutic agents. In addition, our lab continues to answer relevant questions related to all gynecologic malignancies and supports various student, resident, and fellow research projects.
Funded Research Projects:
The Notch Signaling Pathway: Notch signaling is an evolutionarily conserved pathway that has been found to be active in various cancers. Preliminary work in our laboratory has found that the active form of Notch1 is highly expressed in ovarian cancer cells and tumors, and that suppression of Notch1 expression leads to growth reduction in ovarian cancer cells. We are continuing to focus on what role Notch1 is playing in ovarian cancer and in the pursuit of new agents that might reduce ovarian cancer growth through suppression of this pathway. This work is funded by The Liz Tilberis Scholars Award through the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, Inc.