Catherine Margaret Shachaf () is an Indian cell biologist. She previously held an instructor position at Stanford University School of Medicine, and has made discoveries in cancer research. Shachaf is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Green Nanotechnology.
Education Ph.D: Israel Institute of Technology, Molecular Medicine.Transcriptional Regulation of the Kidney Specific Sodium-Phosphate Co-Transporter Npt2
Key scientific contributions Shachaf has researched how MYC expression induces cancer in mice and the effect of its inactivation in those tumors. She showed that removing MYC expression kills the tumor and that MYC reprograms the tumor cells. When MYC expression is taken away from the tumor cells, they are released to their inherent embryonic program.Shachaf CM. and Felsher D. W. Rehabilitation of cancer through oncogene inactivation. Trends in Molecular Medicine. 2005 June 11 (7):316-21. Shachaf CM.and Felsher D. W.Tumor dormancy and MYC inactivation: pushing cancer to the brink of normalcy. Cancer Res. 2005 June 1;65(11):4471-4. The appearance of the tissue formed in this process looks normal by histology (a method used by pathologists to determine the presence of cancer cells). However, Shachaf showed that the cells derived from the tumor are "camouflaged" to appear normal but have the capability to easily revert and become tumors.Shachaf CM. and Felsher D. W. Rehabilitation of cancer through oncogene inactivation. Trends in Molecular Medicine. 2005 June 11 (7):316-21. Shachaf CM.and Felsher D. W.Tumor dormancy and MYC inactivation: pushing cancer to the brink of normalcy. Cancer Res. 2005 June 1;65(11):4471-4; Shachaf C.M., Gentles A, Elchuri S, Sahoo D, Gentles A, Soen Y, Sharpe O, Perez OD, Chang M, Mitchel D, Amati B, Dill D, Nolan GP, Plevritis SK and Felsher DW. Systematic molecular analysis of a MYC overexpressing tumor cell following MYC inactivation. Cancer Res. 2008 Jul 1;68(13):5132-42.
The MYC protein in cancers correlates with poor prognosis and is a difficult therapeutic target. To find alternative downstream targets of MYC, Shachaf defined levels of MYC expression required to drive tumorigenic properties. She conducted a systematic genomic and proteomic profile of MYC dependent tumor cells using microarray analysis, mass spectrometry, cell-antibody arrays and phospho-flow (a flow cytometry based approach to study phosphorylation events in single cells). As a member of the Stanford NCI funded Integrated Cancer Biology Program (ICBP), Shachaf and her colleagues developed a computational program of the genes and gene programs that are required to maintain cancers at different stages of aggressiveness. Using this program, Shachaf and her team found the gene silencing and apoptotic programs to be most significant in inducing tumor cell death.
References
External links Shachaf faculty homepage New imaging tool could improve cancer diagnosis Nanoparticles use Raman tags to highlight features within cells Harnessing Nanoparticles To Track Cancer Cell Changes Stanford Researchers Harness Nanoparticles To Track Cancer-Cell Changes