Members of our department play a key role in cancer research and are major contributors to the programs within our NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. Pathology faculty members are:

• Studying the influence of the microbiome, diet, nutrition and the immune response in the development of neoplasia.
• Identifying and testing new biomarkers that can determine cancer risk, progression, and treatment.
• Using unique mouse models to study human carcinogenesis, including the transplantable mammary intraepithelial neoplasia outgrowth (MINO) model derived from transgenic mice.
• Developing new informatics tools and diagnostic technologies for cancer research.
• Active members of translational teams at the Cancer Center as key collaborators and leaders in their subspecialty areas.
• Leaders in translational research programs that create new approaches to cancer care that span the UC campuses:
  • Athena Breast Health Network
  • All of Us Nutrition for Precision Health Study
  • NIH All of Us Study
• Directors of core resources:
  • Pathology Biorepository
  • Vivaria and veterinary care, Mouse Biology Program

Departmental faculty members pursuing research in cancer collaborate with the following UC Davis units and programs: School of Veterinary Medicine; Stem Cell Program; Comprehensive Cancer Center; California National Primate Research Center; Mouse Biology Program; Center for Health Informatics; Mutant Mouse Pathology Laboratory; Center for Neuroscience; MIND Institute; Program in International and Community Nutrition; Alzheimer's Disease Center, and more.

Meet some of our faculty and their research related to cancer:

• Stowell Chair in Experimental Pathology Xiao-Jing Wang leads head and neck cancer research within the department with a focus on immune mechanisms. She includes UC Davis in a multi-institutional head and neck SPORE grant with the University of Colorado.
• Associate Professor Anthony Karnezis is co-principle investigator on an award from the Department of Defense’s Ovarian Cancer Research Program for the study “Germline P72R Polymorphism as a Determinant of Rescuable p53 Mutants”.
• Associate Professors Karen Matsukuma and Anthony Karnezis received a New Research Initiatives and Interdisciplinary Research grant from the UC Davis Academic Senate to study pancreatic cancer.
• Professor Alexander Borowsky is the principle investigator for the All of Us Nutrition for Precision Health study, a $12.9 M multi-institutional award from NIH which that leverages UC Davis’ unique strengths in nutrition and health, and includes experts at other universities.
• Distinguished Professor Yu-Jui Yvonne Wan is studying how the Western Diet which is high in fat and sugar, influences the microbiome and increases the risk of developing liver and gastrointestinal cancers.