Professor

Urology Department, School of Medicine

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

Dr. Pienta is involved in research to study prostate cancer metastases and tumor resistance. Research projects utilize ecological principles to understand how cancer cells interact with the other cancer cells and host cells in the tumor microenvironment. The lab is currently focusing its efforts on understanding the role of polyaneuploid cancer cells in metastasis and therapeutic resistance.

Cancer Biology | Cellular Stress and Cell Signaling | Translational Research

Selected Publications

Pienta KJ, Hammarlund EU, Austin RH, Axelrod R, Brown JS, Amend SR. Cancer cells employ an evolutionarily conserved polyploidization program to resist therapy. Seminars in Cancer Biology, 2022.

Mallin MM, Pienta KJ, Amend SR. Cancer cell foraging to explain bone-specific metastatic progression. Bone, 2022.

Pienta KJ, Hammarlund EU, Brown JS, Amend SR, Axelrod RM. Cancer recurrence and lethality are enabled by enhanced survival and reversible cell cycle arrest of polyaneuploid cells. PNAS, 2021.

Kuczler MD, Olseen AM, Pienta KJ, Amend SR. ROS-induced cell cycle arrest as a mechanism of resistance in polyaneuploid cancer cells (PACCs). Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 2021.

Kostecka LG, Pienta KJ, Amend SR. Lipid droplet evolution gives insight into polyaneuploid cancer cell lipid droplet functions. Medical Oncology, 2021.

Learn More

NCBI Bibliography | Faculty Profile | Lab Website | Google Scholar | LinkedIn