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New Funding from the American Cancer Society

Our proposal “The role of matrix metalloproteinases in breast cancer progression” was selected for funding by the American Cancer Society (ACS) with a prestigious ACS Research Scholar Grant. Starting Spring 2019, this project will be funded for 4 years with $165,000 direct costs per year. This proposal will zoom in on one of the key […]

Our paper describing the first cell atlas of the human breast epithelium is out

Our work utilizing single cell transcriptomics to reveal hidden cellular variation within the normal human breast epithelium is now online at Nature Communications. Congrats to the first authors Quy Nguyen and Nick Pervolarakis, as well as to our other lab members (Dennis Ma, Nathan James) and the co-authors from the Lawson Lab (Devon Lawson, Kerrigan Blake, […]

Dennis secured postdoctoral fellowship from Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) program

Dennis Ma successfully secured the highly competitive Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) postdoctoral fellowship.  The prestigious CIHR Fellowship Program provides support for highly qualified applicants in all areas of research at the post-PhD degree or post-health professional degree stages to add to their experience by engaging in health research either in Canada or abroad. CIHR […]

Lab Holiday Party in Laguna Beach

The first lab holiday party (joined between Villalta, Lawson, Kessenbrock Labs) took place at our house in Laguna Beach. Due to persistent Santa Ana winds and 84F (~30C) warm weather we switched our theme from Xmas Sweaters and Snow Boots to Hawaiian Flower Leis and Flip Flops – Mele Kalikimaka everyone!

Lab secured funding from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative on building a comprehensive cell atlas of the human breast tissue

Together with Nick Navin’s lab at MD Anderson and Devon Lawson’s lab at UCI, we have secured pilot funds from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to build the first comprehensive cell atlas of the human breast tissue in single cell resolution. This project is based on multimodal analyses of breast tissues that bring together diverse assays, […]

Collaborative project funded by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation

Our collaboration with Dr. Eva Lee’s Lab on “Hormonal modulation and genetic alterations in breast carcinogenesis” got funded by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). The BCRF is a nonprofit organization committed to achieving prevention and a cure for breast cancer. We are grateful for their generous support and we are excited to get to […]

Dennis Ma and Nick Pervolarakis win Opportunity Award from the UCI Center for Complex Biological Systems (CCBS)

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s CCBS Opportunity Awards competition based on the theme of Crossing Scales with Cell-Level Data! This collaboration with Ali Mortazavi’s Lab focusing on “Doublet Cell Sequencing to Elucidate Stem Cell Niche in Mouse Epithelium ” will be carried by Dr. Dennis Ma and Nick Pervolarakis (Kessenbrock Lab) and Camden […]