Seminar Detail

Abstract: Single cell technologies have revealed enormous cellular heterogeneity underlying health and disease, but the source of most heterogeneity remains unclear.  In development, the embryo generates many cell types with distinct gene expression programs, leading to heterogeneity across cells.  In cancer, mutation generates heterogeneity, with a growing recognition that non-genetic (epigenetic) mechanisms contribute.  Our hypothesis is that cancer hijacks developmental programs to drive tumorigenesis and tumor heterogeneity, complicating diagnosis and treatment.  This talk will focus on our efforts to understand the underlying links between developmental biology and tumors, and how we might use this information to build new diagnostics for cancer care.

Bio:: Salil Garg is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Yale University.  Following postdoctoral training with Phillip Sharp at MIT, Dr. Garg started his lab as a clinical fellow at MIT’s Koch Institute for Cancer Research.  The Garg lab moved to Yale in fall of 2022, where they have employed both computational and experimental approaches to understanding the connections between developmental biology and cancer.