Professor, Department of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology
Member, Center for Spatial Systems Biomedicine
Senior Investigator, Knight Cancer Institute
Oregon Health & Science University
Collaborative Life Sciences Building
2750 SW Moody Avenue
Portland, OR 97239
USA

Research Interests

Dr. Courtneidge's laboratory has studied the Src family of protein tyrosine kinases for a number of years. Src was the first oncogene to be discovered, and the first protein tyrosine kinase, and dissecting the mechanisms of Src transformation, regulation, substrate selection and function has proved to be a powerful research paradigm to understand tumorigenesis. In addition, since Src is frequently up-regulated and hyperactivated in human cancers, particularly of the breast and colon, such research is of direct relevance to human disease. Current research in the laboratory focuses on three main areas. The first involves defining how Src and its substrate, Tks5, drive the formation of podosomes and invadopodia. Since these structures are found in metastatic human cancer cells, the second focus is to identify and validate molecular invadopodia targets, in order to define novel therapeutic points of intervention for the treatment of metastatic disease. The third research area involves defining in molecular detail the role of Src in mitogenic signaling pathways, particularly in breast cancer cells responding to estrogen.