General Description

This study seeks fundamental answers about the origin of intestinal neuroendocrine cells and carcinoid tumors. The researchers will capitalize on exciting advances in stem cell biology, nuclear profiling, and genome editing to understand the differences between human carcinoid tumor cells and their normal counterparts, in an effort to find the irregularities that distinguish cancer cells from healthy ones. Drs. Zhou and Shivdasani also aim to identify the likely precursor cells (the cell of origin) that give rise to intestinal NETs in laboratory models.