The organelles of cancer cells must adapt to oncogenic stress for tumors to initiate and progress, but there is little to no systems-level understanding of how such adaptations occur. The Systems Analysis of Stress-adapted Cancer Organelles (SASCO) Center at the University of Virginia is addressing this challenge by mechanistic modeling of organellar processes that iterates with quantitative experiments in disease-relevant cell cultures and primary tumors. The Center brings together investigators with primary and collaborative track records in cancer biology, systems biology, genetically engineered mouse models of cancer, and clinical practice.

Second Annual SASCO Research Symposium July 23, 2025

in the UVa School of Medicine Pinn Hall Conference Center.

Agenda. Registration.

Research Projects

Project 1. Robust-to-fragile transitions of a phase-separated mitotic organelle in triple-negative breast cancer

Project 2. A systems-metabolism approach to identify mitochondria-dependent vulnerabilities in colorectal cancer

Project 3. EGFR signaling network adaptations to overcome RAS-induced membrane stress in glioblastoma

Cores

Administrative Core

High-Content Imaging & Analysis Core

Outreach Core

Our work is made possible by funding from the Cancer Systems Biology Consortium.

Recent Publications

Reframing the role of the objective function in its proper context for metabolic network modeling.
Mohammad Mazharul Islam, William Shao, Mariska Batavia, Roseanne M. Ford, Bernard O. Palsson, Jens Nielsen, Costas D. Maranas, Sang Yup Lee, Jason A. Papin.
Cell Systems. 2025; 16(8), June 18, 2025.
PubMed DOI

Systems-level consequences of low RAF abundance for EGFR-ERK signaling.
Sung Hyun Lee, Paul J. Myers, Kevin S. Brown, Leslie M. Loew, Alexander Sorkin, Matthew J. Lazzara.
bioRxiv preprint. 2025; June 17, 2025.
DOI

Proteome-wide copy-number estimation from transcriptomics.
Andrew J Sweatt, Cameron D Griffiths, Sarah M Groves, B Bishal Paudel, Lixin Wang, David F Kashatus, and Kevin A Janes.
Mol Syst Biol. 2024; online ahead of print.
PubMed DOI