My laboratory studies a number of signal transduction pathways central to cancer. We have focused on transcription factors of the NFAT family, and shown that they are functionally active in cancer cells, and required for promoting the invasion of carcinoma cells. We are currently evaluating the importance of NFAT activity in breast cancer progression in vivo, and deciphering the transcriptional targets of NFAT in breast cancer cells. We are also investigating the mechanisms by which the PI 3-kinase and Akt signaling pathway regulates breast cancer progression. Our studies have focused on the role of the Akt kinase in modulating breast cancer progression, and we have made some very surprising findings in this area. Another major research focus in the laboratory is the function of the serine/threonine kinase PKD (protein kinase D) in cancer cell biology.

I received my PhD from the National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK, in 1991 and conducted post-doctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Lewis Cantley, first at Tufts University School of Medicine, then at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). In 2000, I joined the faculty of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. In 2014, I was appointed Chief of the Division of Signal Transduction in the Departments of Pathology and the Medicine and Cancer Center at BIDMC.