Researcher Spotlight: Bob Varelas, PhD and Vikki Noonan, DMD

Since its founding in 2011, the Oral Cancer Research Initiative (OCRI) has demonstrated the value of collaborative and multidisciplinary research. The goal of the OCRI is to bring together professionals from disparate fields to work together on the diverse issues related to oral cancer. Two such OCRI members at the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM), Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry Dr. Bob Varelas and Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Oral Pathology in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Dr. Vikki Noonan, are truly reflective of this collaborative mission since they recently co-authored a paper on the role of nuclear TAZ/YAP in the onset and progression of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC). OSCC is a prevalent form of cancer that develops from the epithelium of the oral cavity. Their paper titled “A YAP/TAZ-regulated transcriptional signature associated with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma” is an analysis of the global gene expression changes that occur upon YAP and TAZ knockdown, and revealed roles in the control of genes important for pro-tumorigenic signaling, including those encoding factors required for cell cycle progression and survival. Notably, the transcriptional signature regulated by YAP and TAZ significantly correlates with gene expression changes in OSCC identified by “The Cancer Genome Atlas” (TCGA) studies, emphasizing a central role for YAP and TAZ in OSCC biology. This paper has been submitted to Molecular & Cancer Research and is expected to be accepted in the near future.

Dr. Noonan, an Oral and Maxillofacial Pathologist and member of the OCRI, is a member of the Center for Oral Diseases at GSDM. Her primary interests include clinical and surgical oral and maxillofacial pathology, pre-doctoral and post-doctoral dental education, and research pertaining to the biological basis of oral cancer. Dr. Noonan has been instrumental in providing OCRI researchers with oral tissue samples from the clinic, and as an oral pathologist she lends her expertise in the analysis of dysplasia and pre-malignant lesions.

Dr. Varelas is an OCRI investigator whose research has focused on identifying novel regulatory mechanisms and functions for the Hippo pathway in development and disease. The Hippo pathway is a vital signaling pathway that coordinates mechanical cues to direct cell proliferation, apoptosis, movement and fate. Defective Hippo pathway signaling is associated with a range of diseases, including cancer. His recent work has shown that precise control of Hippo pathway signaling is required in oral/tracheal epithelial homeostasis, and that deregulated nuclear activity of the Hippo pathway effectors TAZ and YAP drive a transcriptional program associated with head neck carcinoma progression.