Sohail F. Tavazoie

Jan 14, 2025 | sciencedirect.com | Wenbin Mei |Sohail F. Tavazoie |Jessica Waibl Polania |Peter E. Fecci

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapies have improved the outcome of patients with malignant tumors. However, most cancer patients barely benefit from ICB treatments.1 Deciphering mechanisms for ICB resistance, especially cancer cell-intrinsic factors mediating immune escape, will improve ICB efficacy.

Dec 9, 2024 | sciencedirect.com | Jing ZENG |Daniel Bauer |Wenbin Mei |Sohail F. Tavazoie

Patient tumor-derived organoids have been increasingly recognized as an essential tool for cancer research, providing a more accurate and physiological representation of patient tumors compared with cell line or xenograft models.1,2,3 While tumor organoids have been leveraged to study biological mechanisms of cancer4 and to generate diverse biobanks,1,5,6,7,8,9 they are now also emerging as a translationally useful platform for mirroring clinical responses to therapy, such as in breast,10,11...

Jun 7, 2024 | nature.com | Sohail F. Tavazoie

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases can promote or suppress cancer progression by regulating codon-dependent translation. A study now shows that valine aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (VARS) promotes therapeutic resistance of melanoma to MAPK pathway inhibitors by enhancing translation of valine-enriched genes, including the fatty acid oxidation gene HADH.

May 16, 2024 | cell.com | Dennis J. Hsu |Sohail F. Tavazoie

Yang, Pataskar, et al. investigated the impact of arginine shortage on aberrant mRNA translation in cancer. They report the enrichment of arginine-to-cysteine substitutants in human lung cancer, link it to a tRNA misalignment mechanism, and connect it to KEAP1 pathway mutations and platinum resistance.

Jan 2, 2024 | jci.org | Sohail F. Tavazoie

Members, guests, and physician-scientists in training, during the past year, I have been incredibly honored to have served as president of ASCI, an organization with a long tradition of supporting physician-scientists in their noble mission to uncover fundamental insights into human biology and pathophysiology and apply these insights toward tomorrow’s cures. As is customary, I’ll start by telling you about my own journey as a physician-scientist.