E. Alejandro Sweet-Cordero, M.D.

I am a physician-scientist focused on cancer biology and cancer genomics. The goal of my laboratory is to understand the molecular rewiring that occurs in cancer in order to deepen our fundamental understanding of this disease and potentially identify new therapeutic opportunities.  We use functional genomics applied to mouse and human systems to understand signaling and transcriptional networks that regulate the outcome of specific oncogenic mutations.  We have two primary disease interests: lung cancer and pediatric sarcomas. Our current efforts in lung cancer are focused on using functional genomics in mouse and human models to identify novel synthetic vulnerabilities for oncogenic KRAS. We have also described a potential new therapeutic approach for lung cancer involving targeting of a cytokine produced by cancer associated fibroblasts. In our sarcoma work, we are interested in mechanisms driving osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma progression and therapy resistance. We rely on computational genomic analysis for much of our work and we have extensive experience in generating next-generation sequencing datasets for gene and network discovery using both primary tumors and human and mouse model systems. Our current efforts in sarcomas are directed at identifying mechanisms of metastatic spread and chemoresistance at the metastatic niche using lineage tracing and in vivo CRISPR/CAS9 screens. In addition to directing my own research laboratory, I also direct the Molecular Oncology Initiative at UCSF, an effort to advance the clinical application of precision medicine in oncology for adult and pediatric cancer patients. Since 2022 I serve as the Chief of the Division of Pediatric Oncology at UCSF.