Welcome to the Charest Lab!
In the laboratory of Dr. Pascale Charest at the University of Arizona, we study how cells migrate in response to external chemical cues (chemoattractants), a process (chemotaxis) that is important to normal physiology and that is also implicated in the onset and progression of diseases such as cancer metastasis. Metastasis, the migration of cancer cells away from the primary tumor to other parts of the body, is by far the major cause of death from cancer. Yet, most anti-cancer drugs inhibit only cancer cell proliferation. One main reason for the lack of efficient anti-metastasis therapy is our lack of understanding of what promotes tumor cell migration and invasion. Our goal is to identify key, conserved intracellular signaling pathways and molecular mechanisms that control cell migration to guide the development of therapeutic strategies preventing the spread of cancer. For this, we work with the model organism Dictyostelium discoideum as well as normal and transformed human cells, and we use collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches that include cellular, molecular, biochemical, biophysical and computational methods.
Charest Lab News
June 2020
Two graduate students are awarded fellowships from NIH-T32 training grants: Mollie Wiegand in MCB (Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology Program) and Alyssa Werner in CBC (Biological Chemistry Program). Congratulations to both of you! You really deserve it!
May 2020
We are welcoming four High School KEYS interns for a remote online research experience this summer: Nik Mathur (University HS), Natalia Bojorquez (Nogales HS), Grace Harrington (Cactus Shadows HS), and Douglas Swango (BASIS Tucson North HS). They will be working in a team with graduate students Alyssa Werner and Mollie Wiegand to investigate the roles of mTORC2 in cancer by mining data from publicly available cancer databases. Welcome to you all, we are very excited to have you onboard this summer!
This month we are celebrating two graduations: Shannon Collins, Biochemistry PhD, and Isabella Brown BSc with double major in Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology. Shannon and Isabella were working together on investigating the role of Ras and mTORC2 in breast cancer cell migration. Despite the pandemic, we are all healthy and were able to have a small dinner party to mark the occasion. Shannon is now doing his clinical rotations to complete the MD portion of the MD/PhD program, and Isabella is going to Grad School at UT Southwestern in the Fall!
Congratulations you both, you did it!!! And we will miss you!
We are back in the lab! At least partly: staff and graduate students. We are ramping up slowly, and undergrads will come back in July.
April 2020
We are shutting down the lab this month as part of UA's effort to help flatten the curve on COVID-19 cases, but we are continuing our research from home and finding professional development projects to do until we can go back to do experiments!
March 2020
Undergraduate student and Beckman Scholar Jamie Takashima is selected for the highly competitive Goldwater Scholarship! Congratulations Jamie, you really rock!
Mollie Wiegand joins the lab as a new graduate student in the Biochemistry, Molecular & Cellular Biology Program. Mollie will be working on the role and regulation of the Ras-mTORC2 pathway in breast cancer cell migration. We are really happy to have you Mollie, Welcome!
February 2020
MD/PhD student Shannon Collins defended his PhD dissertation and will be graduating officially this May. Congratulations Dr. Collins! You only have one more "Dr" title to get, half way there! ;-)
January 2020
Welcome to our new undergraduate researchers: Nitant Soni (1st year MCB major), Stephen Dilley (1st year MCB major), Hannah Johnson (2nd year Biology major), Isabella Feldman (1st year MCB major), and Shon Alimukhamedov (2nd year MCB major). Nitant and Stephen are working with staff scientist Tariq Islam, Hannah is working with graduate student Alyssa Werner, Isabella is working with graduate student Genesis Cahigas, and Shon is working with graduate student Stephen Smith.
October 2019
The Charest lab took a trip to the Marana Fall Festival and Pumpkin Patch! It was a lot of fun for the little ones, as well as for the bigger ones :-) !
The Charest lab participate in the MCB Department outreach event Meet MCB! this month. Members of the lab met with and introduced their research to 90 high school students from 8 different local schools. It was a great experience for both us and the high school kids, thank you so much to everyone who made it happen!
August 2019
Dr. Charest has accepted an Associate Professor position in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and The Charest Lab has now moved to the Life Sciences South building. It's not easy to move an entire laboratory, but it went pretty smoothly! Thank you to everyone that helped!
Graduate student Alyssa Werner was a finalist for the CBC 2019 Early Career Award and delivered a great (the best!) talk at the CBC Awards symposium. Good job Alyssa!
June 2019
Congratulations to Alyssa Werner, recipient of a 2019-2020 NIH-T32 BCP fellowship! Well deserved!
May 2019
Dr. Charest has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure! Congratulations, this is extremely well-deserved!!!
Congratulations to McKenna Schultz who graduated with a B.Sc. in both Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology! Good luck on your future endeavors McKenna!
April 2019
Congratulations to graduate student Stephen Smith who was awarded the 2019 John Hostetter Award for his impressive scholarship accomplishments! Good job!!
March 2019
We are having a great Spring semester, with a lot of really good news:
Undergraduate researcher Jamie Takashima is a recipient of a prestigious 2019 UA Beckman scholarship. Congratulations Jamie, keep up the good work!
In addition, our manuscript on the effect of caffeine in Dictyostelium has been accepted for publication in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. This was truly a collaborative work, congratulations and thanks to all contributing authors!
Finally, we have been awarded a 5-year R01 grant from NIH-NIGMS of ~1.5M$ to study the role and regulation of the mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 2 (mTORC2) in directed cell migration. Congrats!!!
Two graduate students are awarded fellowships from NIH-T32 training grants: Mollie Wiegand in MCB (Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology Program) and Alyssa Werner in CBC (Biological Chemistry Program). Congratulations to both of you! You really deserve it!
May 2020
We are welcoming four High School KEYS interns for a remote online research experience this summer: Nik Mathur (University HS), Natalia Bojorquez (Nogales HS), Grace Harrington (Cactus Shadows HS), and Douglas Swango (BASIS Tucson North HS). They will be working in a team with graduate students Alyssa Werner and Mollie Wiegand to investigate the roles of mTORC2 in cancer by mining data from publicly available cancer databases. Welcome to you all, we are very excited to have you onboard this summer!
This month we are celebrating two graduations: Shannon Collins, Biochemistry PhD, and Isabella Brown BSc with double major in Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology. Shannon and Isabella were working together on investigating the role of Ras and mTORC2 in breast cancer cell migration. Despite the pandemic, we are all healthy and were able to have a small dinner party to mark the occasion. Shannon is now doing his clinical rotations to complete the MD portion of the MD/PhD program, and Isabella is going to Grad School at UT Southwestern in the Fall!
Congratulations you both, you did it!!! And we will miss you!
We are back in the lab! At least partly: staff and graduate students. We are ramping up slowly, and undergrads will come back in July.
April 2020
We are shutting down the lab this month as part of UA's effort to help flatten the curve on COVID-19 cases, but we are continuing our research from home and finding professional development projects to do until we can go back to do experiments!
March 2020
Undergraduate student and Beckman Scholar Jamie Takashima is selected for the highly competitive Goldwater Scholarship! Congratulations Jamie, you really rock!
Mollie Wiegand joins the lab as a new graduate student in the Biochemistry, Molecular & Cellular Biology Program. Mollie will be working on the role and regulation of the Ras-mTORC2 pathway in breast cancer cell migration. We are really happy to have you Mollie, Welcome!
February 2020
MD/PhD student Shannon Collins defended his PhD dissertation and will be graduating officially this May. Congratulations Dr. Collins! You only have one more "Dr" title to get, half way there! ;-)
January 2020
Welcome to our new undergraduate researchers: Nitant Soni (1st year MCB major), Stephen Dilley (1st year MCB major), Hannah Johnson (2nd year Biology major), Isabella Feldman (1st year MCB major), and Shon Alimukhamedov (2nd year MCB major). Nitant and Stephen are working with staff scientist Tariq Islam, Hannah is working with graduate student Alyssa Werner, Isabella is working with graduate student Genesis Cahigas, and Shon is working with graduate student Stephen Smith.
October 2019
The Charest lab took a trip to the Marana Fall Festival and Pumpkin Patch! It was a lot of fun for the little ones, as well as for the bigger ones :-) !
The Charest lab participate in the MCB Department outreach event Meet MCB! this month. Members of the lab met with and introduced their research to 90 high school students from 8 different local schools. It was a great experience for both us and the high school kids, thank you so much to everyone who made it happen!
August 2019
Dr. Charest has accepted an Associate Professor position in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and The Charest Lab has now moved to the Life Sciences South building. It's not easy to move an entire laboratory, but it went pretty smoothly! Thank you to everyone that helped!
Graduate student Alyssa Werner was a finalist for the CBC 2019 Early Career Award and delivered a great (the best!) talk at the CBC Awards symposium. Good job Alyssa!
June 2019
Congratulations to Alyssa Werner, recipient of a 2019-2020 NIH-T32 BCP fellowship! Well deserved!
May 2019
Dr. Charest has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure! Congratulations, this is extremely well-deserved!!!
Congratulations to McKenna Schultz who graduated with a B.Sc. in both Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology! Good luck on your future endeavors McKenna!
April 2019
Congratulations to graduate student Stephen Smith who was awarded the 2019 John Hostetter Award for his impressive scholarship accomplishments! Good job!!
March 2019
We are having a great Spring semester, with a lot of really good news:
Undergraduate researcher Jamie Takashima is a recipient of a prestigious 2019 UA Beckman scholarship. Congratulations Jamie, keep up the good work!
In addition, our manuscript on the effect of caffeine in Dictyostelium has been accepted for publication in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. This was truly a collaborative work, congratulations and thanks to all contributing authors!
Finally, we have been awarded a 5-year R01 grant from NIH-NIGMS of ~1.5M$ to study the role and regulation of the mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 2 (mTORC2) in directed cell migration. Congrats!!!
Charest lab March 2019.
Absent: Stephen Smith and McKenna Schultz.
