Background
Contact Us
Geraldine Guasch, PhD
Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation
Developmental Biology - MLC 7007
3333 Burnet Ave.
Cincinnati, OH 45229
Phone: 513-803-2607
Email: geraldine.guasch@cchmc.org
Publications
View a list of representative publications from Geraldine Guasch, PhD.
Keratin 17 stains
Keratin 17 (in red) stains the transitional zone between the stratified anal canal and the simple epithelium of the intestine of a wild-type mouse.
Geraldine Guasch is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Developmental Biology. She received a BS/MS (diploma) in Biochemistry from University of Montpellier, France in 1997. She then moved to University of Aix-Marseille, France in 1997 and received her PhD in Immunology/Oncology in January 2002. She received a Human Frontier Science Program Post-doctoral Fellowship in 2002 while at Rockefeller University in New York City. She joined Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in November 2008.
Research Interests
- Cancer and stem cell biology
- TGFβ signaling pathway
- Epithelial squamous cell carcinoma
- Microenvironment and tumor formation
Current Research
In our laboratory we are using the mouse as a model system to investigate the role of stem cells in tumor development. Our long-term goal is to understand whether skin cancers arise from stem cells and whether tumors maintain stem cells, using a combination of genetics and biochemical studies. Understanding where cancers come from and how they progress is a prerequisite to developing improved clinical treatments. We have recently generated a mouse cancer model by deleting the essential receptor (TβRII) for TGFβ signaling in stratified epithelia. Interestingly two tissues, the epidermis of the backskin and the anogenital epithelium, responded very differently. In the anogenital region squamous cell carcinomas develop spontaneously between 4-9 months of age, which recapitulate epithelial cancer of human anogenital region. We found that spontaneous squamous cell carcinoma in the TβRII deficient mice frequently arose within transitional zones between two merging but distinct epithelial tissue types. Tumor susceptibility was especially prominent at the juncture of mucosal stratified squamous epithelium of the anal canal and simple epithelial tissue of the large intestine.
We are currently trying to define:
- What is the origin of the anogenital and backskin tumors in the TGFβ signaling deficient mice?
- What is the role of the microenvironment on the development of the tumor?
- What is the relation between epithelial-mesenchymal interaction in a normal situation to later elucidate the relation between tumors and surrounding cells.
We use a variety of molecular, biochemical, and tissue culture techniques, in vivo imaging and fluorescence activated cell sorting, as well as mouse transgenic and gene targeting (knock-out) technology to address these various questions.
View a list of representative publications.
Contact Us
The Guasch laboratory is part of the Division of Developmental Biology at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation.
Geraldine Guasch, PhD
Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation
Developmental Biology - MLC 7007
3333 Burnet Ave.
Cincinnati, OH 45229
Phone: 513-803-2607
Email: geraldine.guasch@cchmc.org
Students and Post-doctoral Fellows are encouraged to contact me regarding lab positions.
