“Ecology Meets Cancer Biology: Keystone Cancer Cells are Actuators of Therapy Resistance and Cancer Lethality.”

Using cancer ecology to solve the problem of metastasis, Amend’s research is focused on understanding the role of the tumor microenvironment in cancer progression, specifically related to lethal metastasis.

Sarah Amend is an Assistant Professor, partnering with Dr. Ken Pienta to study the ecology of cancer.  She was a post-doctoral fellow in the lab and received her undergraduate degree from N.C. State University in Biological Sciences and did her Ph.D. thesis work on contributions of the microenvironment to bone resident cancer at Washington University in St. Louis. She is studying the role of the malignant cancer niche in inducing cancer cell biodiversity.