Rui Research

Dr. Rui is a physician-scientist with an MD and PhD in Experimental Pathology from the University of Oslo, Norway. He is currently Professor of Pharmacology, Physiology & Cancer Biology at Thomas Jefferson University and Director of the Pathology Translational Research Shared Resource and the CAP-accredited Biorepository at the NCI-designated Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA. His laboratory is recognized for their work on molecular profiling of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, with more than 200 publications and 12,000 citations.

The laboratory’s mission is to advance personalized breast cancer care by 1) discovering drug-response biomarkers and; 2) identifying therapeutic targets that will prevent or overcome therapy-resistant, metastatic disease. Particular focus is on understanding and overcoming endocrine resistance mechanisms.  To that end, the laboratory integrates two complementary platforms:

• Quantitative multiplex histocytometry of breast cancer: The team and collaborators have profiled numerous therapy-relevant proteins across an extensive panel of breast cancers, assembling an analytical pipeline that delivers single-cell, spatially resolved data on pathway activation and tumor immunology.
  
  
•  Metastasis-competent pre-clinical models of breast cancer:  The team and collaborators genetically engineered and characterized prolactin-humanized NSG-Pro mice, which support sustained prolactin signaling and faithfully recapitulate growth and drug responsiveness of patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models of breast cancer and, critically, spontaneous distant metastasis. These models underpin mechanistic studies and preclinical trials of new agents and their combinations across an expanding panel of ER-positive, HER2-positive, and triple-negative breast cancer PDX models.