Denis Guttridge, Ph.D.

Dr. Denis Guttridge

Professor and Director, Darby Children’s Research Institute & Associate Director of Translational Sciences, Hollings Cancer Center

Department: Pediatrics
Programs: Cellular Injury, Inflammation, End Organ Disease

 

Research Interests:

Dr. Guttridge received his BS in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California, San Diego, and his MS from California State University, Long Beach. Following his PhD work at the University of California, Irvine, he did his postdoctoral work at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill prior to joining the faculty of the Ohio State University / OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center. He joined the faculty in the Department of Pediatrics at MUSC in 2018 and is the Director of the Charles P. Darby Children’s Research Institute, as well as the Associated Director of Translational Sciences at the Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC.

The Guttridge laboratory is focused on the NF-B signaling pathway, a key regulator of cell inflammatory responses, and how this pathway regulates cellular differentiation and tumorigenesis. Using skeletal muscle as a model system of differentiation new insights for muscle related pathologies have led to research in four main areas:

  • Involuntary weight loss in cancer patients referred to as cachexia that results in muscle wasting
  • Duchenne muscular dystrophy which is caused by degeneration of skeletal and cardiac muscle
  • Rhabdomyosarcoma, which is a childhood cancer that often develops in skeletal muscle
  • Pancreatic cancer, which exhibits one of the highest incidences of cachexia and muscle loss

The laboratory is also interested in developing NF-B inhibitors or compounds that inhibit downstream effectors of the NF-B pathway as potential therapies against, cancer cachexia, muscular dystrophy, rhabdomyosarcoma, and pancreatic cancer.

As part of the DDRC, the efforts of the Guttridge Laboratory geared toward discerning the components and cellular function of muscle and cancer cell responses to NF-B pathway modulation will be enhanced through use of the Advanced Cell Imaging Core as well as the Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry Core.

Publications:

PubMed Collection