Tomer Cooks, PhD

Tomer Cooks, PhD, a new recipient of an ICRF Project Grant at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, is investigating the role of exosomes (nanoparticles produced by pancreatic cancer cells) in reprogramming the surrounding microenvironment to create favorable conditions for cancer cells to invade and metastasize. His lab specifically focuses on cancer cells with a mutated p53 gene, the most frequently altered gene in human cancers. Exosomes released by cells that contain the mutant p53 gene have the potential to ‘educate’ neighboring cells to promote cancer.  Finding ways to stop this process could become instrumental in the development of clinical approaches for pancreatic cancer and other tumors.

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