The research program within the Fane lab focuses on trying to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the aging pre-metastatic niches and the role of these aged microenvironments in promoting cancer cell dormancy, metastatic reactivation and response to therapy.

We are interested in uncovering the evolution and intrinsic reprograming of fibroblasts, immune cells, endothelial cells and ECM remodeling associated with aging in the pre-metastatic niche of healthy and cancerous in-vitro and in-vivo models of metastasis, with validation using patient samples.

Our goal is to uncover novel signaling pathways associated with dormant and reactivated cancerous disease across various aging metastatic cancer models, with the hope of uncovering clinical markers for diagnosis of dormant disease and therapies for targeting these highly resistant and eventually aggressive cancer populations.

We also place a large emphasis on investigating the use of aged models across cancer. Many cancers show dramatic increases in incidence and mortality with respect to age, yet most pre-clinical animal models are done in younger mice or do not take account of age within patient samples. By deciphering the key differences between young and aged microenvironments in healthy and diseased models, we hope to create a paradigm shift in the field where age appropriate models are considered for various cancers for better clinical translation.