Subree lab
We are actively investigating whether TnTs serve as a selective and unique conduit for cellular cargo that drive vital cellular processes, including carcinogenesis and metastasis. Investigation of the underlying function of TnTs and relevance to invasive cancers.Ongoing projects on TnTs in our lab include the following: Our collaborative team believes that TnTs are an underexplored yet potentially important mode of intercellular communication in cancer and play a heretofore unassessed role in tumor-stromal cross-talk in the complex and heterogeneous tumor microenvironment. For confocal and other microscopy videos of this work, click here. To date, we have demonstrated nanotubes in several invasive malignancies such as mesothelioma and lung adenocarcinoma from surgically resected tumors from human patients, and more recently in orthotopic animal models including osteosarcoma. Our team was the first to demonstrate, using confocal microscopy, presence of nanotubes in intact malignant tumors. Much remains unknown about these structures, including their in vivo relevance. To date, there have been relatively few studies of TnTs in cancer, particularly in primary cancer cells or tumors.
Furthermore, once they attach to nearby or distant cells in culture, they form direct connections that serve as conduits for intercellular transport of a variety of cellular cargo and contents, including but not limited to lipophilic vesicles, Golgi vesicles, and even mitochondria. When examined in vitro, TnTs are differentiated from other actin-based structures such as filopodia, invadopodia, and lamellopodia by their characteristic non-adherence to the substratum. B cells, macrophages), neurons, and more recently being examined in malignant cells. These structures are long, thin, spontaneously forming actin-based cellular extensions that occur in a variety of cell types including inflammatory cells (e.g. The Lou lab primarily focuses its work on studying intercellular communication via cellular extensions called tunneling nanotubes (TnTs, or TNTs, for short). Identifying pertinent clinical problems in oncology that can be investigated in the laboratory setting is a high priority for his research program and collaborative efforts. He has served as an expert reviewer for grant proposals and manuscripts focused on tumor biology and clinical cancer research, and is a Deputy Editor for the journal Molecular Therapy Oncolytics. At the national level, he has served on the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Scientific Committee for GI Cancers (2012-15), Continuing Education Committee for the North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (2020-present). As a fellowship-trained and practicing medical oncologist and neuro-oncologist, he has a strong interest in a ‘bedside-to-bench-and-back’ approach to translational oncology and laboratory research. Emil Lou, MD, PhD, FACP is a physician-scientist with a strong interest and a translational approach to the investigation of solid tumor malignancies at the cellular and molecular level.