Ruben Dries

Ruben Dries, PhD combines computational data analysis with novel experimental approaches and technologies to understand basic biological concepts in health and disease. These insights could then be leveraged to target tumor specific processes or inhibit the development of treatment resistance. These interests grew dynamically throughout his research career. In his early studies Dr. Dries developed a systems biology approach to dissect the regulatory network of neural differentiating embryonic stem cells and used this knowledge at a later stage to understand how cancer cells transcriptionally respond to targeted therapies and other stress factors. More recently, he expanded this area by focusing on how cells can spatially communicate within their microenvironment and build tools to facilitate these type of analyses.

As a young and dynamic group his lab works together as a team in the following areas:

1) Establishing multi-cellular breast cancer models that better reflect spatial tumor heterogeneity

2) Building tools to explore and quantify cellular cross-talk

3) Assess the contribution of supporting cells to cancer cells within the breast tumor microenvironment

4) Document the gradual response to targeted therapy at the transcriptional and chromatin level in breast cancer cells