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Research Overview

Dr. Marsha A. Moses is the Julia Dyckman Andrus Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children's Hospital. She is internationally recognized for her significant contributions to our understanding of the biochemical and molecular mechanisms that underlie the regulation of tumor development and progression. Dr. Moses and her laboratory have discovered several inhibitors of these processes that function at both the transcriptional and translational level, some of which are being developed for potential clinical use in a variety of human diseases. Named a pioneer in the field of Biomarker Medicine by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, she created a Proteomics Initiative at Boston Children’s Hospital, has utilized its resources, including an extensive human biorepository and has leveraged her significant expertise in proteomics to discover and validate a number of novel, non-invasive biomarkers for a variety of human cancers and non-neoplastic diseases. Several of these biomarkers are currently being used in clinical trials. Dr. Moses and her team have also engineered novel, actively targeted, precision nanomedicines for the treatment of human cancers and their metastases. A number of these therapeutics and diagnostics are included in Dr. Moses’ significant patent portfolio composed of both US and foreign patents.

Dr. Moses’ basic and translational work has been published in such journals as Science, The New England Journal of Medicine, Cell, PNAS and Nature Communications, among others. She received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Boston University and completed a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Langer. Dr. Moses is the recipient of a number of NIH and foundation grants and numerous awards and honors. She has been recognized with both of Harvard Medical School's mentoring awards, the A. Clifford Barger Mentoring Award and the Joseph B. Martin Dean’s Leadership Award for the Advancement of Women Faculty. Marsha has received the Excellence in Mentoring Award from the Postdoc Association of Boston Children’s Hospital and has also received their Award for Exceptional Mentorship. Dr. Moses has also received the Honorary Member Mentoring Award from the Association of Women Surgeons of the American College of Surgeons. She was the 2021 recipient of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Lectureship.

Dr. Moses has been elected to the Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Medicine) of the National Academies of the United States, the National Academy of Inventors, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022.

 

Articles

  1. Could concussion be monitored through urine samples?
  2. Precision chemo-immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer?
  3. How breast cancer uses exosomes to metastasize to the brain.
  4. Novel CRISPR system could halt growth of triple-negative breast cancer
  5. Dually-targeted liposomes curb triple-negative breast cancer, metastases in mice
  6. The softer the nanoparticle, the better the drug delivery to tumors

 

Selected Publications

  1. Guo P, Huang J, Zhu B, Huang AC, Jiang L, Fang J, Moses MA. A rationally designed ICAM1 antibody drug conjugate eradicates late-stage and refractory triple-negative breast tumors in vivo. Sci Adv. 2023 May 5;9(18):eabq7866. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abq7866. Epub 2023 May 5. PMID: 37146146; PMCID: PMC10162665.
  2. Roy R, Yang J, Shimura T, Merritt L, Alluin J, Man E, Daisy C, Aldakhlallah R, Dillon D, Pories S, Chodosh LA, Moses MA. Escape from breast tumor dormancy: The convergence of obesity and menopause. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Oct 11;119(41):e2204758119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2204758119. Epub 2022 Oct 3. PMID: 36191215; PMCID: PMC9564105.
  3. Daisy CC, Varinos S, Howell DR, Kaplan K, Mannix R, Meehan WP, Wang F, Berkstresser B, Lee RS, Froehlich JW, Zurakowski D, Moses MA.  Proteomic discovery of non-invasive biomarkers associated with sport-related concussions.  Neurology 2022; 98(2):e186-e198, PMID:34675105
  4. Guo P, Busatto S, Huang J, Morad G, Moses MA.  A facile magnetic extrusion method for preparing endosome-derived vesicles for cancer drug delivery.  Advanced Functional Materials 2021; 31:2008326 PMID: 34924915 (Selected for Cover Feature)
  5. Huang J, Agoston AT, Guo P, Moses MA. A rationally designed ICAM1 antibody drug conjugate for pancreatic cancer. Advanced Science 2020; 7(24):2002852 PMID: 33344137.
  6. Morad G, Daisy CC, Otu HH, Libermann TA, Simon T. Dillon ST, Moses MA. Cdc42-dependent transfer of mir301 from breast cancer-derived extracellular vesicles regulates the matrix modulating ability of astrocytes at the blood–brain barrier. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2020; May 28; 21(11):3851.PMID: 32481745
  7. Morad G, Carmen CV, Hagedorn EJ, Perlin JR, Zon LI, Mustafaoglu M. Park T-E, Ingber DI, Daisy CC, Moses MA. Tumor-derived extracellular vesicles breach the intact blood-brain barrier via transcytosis. 2019, ACS Nano, 2019; September 10, 13(12):13853-13865, PMID:31479239 (Selected for Cover Feature).
  8. Guo P, Yang J, Huang J, Auguste DT#, Moses MA#. Therapeutic genome editing of triple-negative breast tumors using a noncationic and deformable nanolipogel. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 2019; 116(37):18295-18303 (#These authors contributed equally and are co-last authors) PMID: 31451668.
  9. Huang J, Gao P*, Moses MA*. Rationally designed antibody drug conjugates targeting the breast cancer-association endothelium. ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering 2019; In Press (*Co-corresponding authors)
  10. Morad G, Moses MA. Brainwashed by extracellular vesicles: The role of extracellular vesicles in primary and metastatic brain tumor microenvironment. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, 2019; 8(1):1627164 PMID: 31275532.
  11. Guo P, Liu D, Subramanyam K, Wang B, Yang J, Huang J, Auguste DT*, Moses MA*. Nanoparticle elasticity directs tumor uptake. Nature Communications 2018; 9(1):130, January 9. PMID: 29317633. PMCID:PMC5760638 (*These authors contributed equally to this work and are co-last authors.) (+Co-corresponding authors.)
  12. Guo P, Wang B, Liu D, Yang J, Subramanyam K, McCarthy CR, Hebert J, Moses MA*, Auguste DT*. Using atomic force microscopy to predict tumor specificity of ICAM1 antibody-directed nanomedicines. Nano Letters March 2018; 18(4):2254-2262. PMID: 29505261. (*These authors contributed equally and are co-last authors.)
  13. Gordon LB, Campbell SE, Massaro J, D’Agostino RB, Kleinman ME, Kieran MW, Moses MA. A survey of plasma proteins in children with Progeria pre-therapy and on-therapy with Lonafarnib. Pediatric Research May 2018; 83(5):982-992. PMID: 29342131.
  14. Roy R, Dagher A, Butterfield C, Moses, MA. ADAM12 is a Novel Regulator of Tumor Angiogenesis via STAT3 Signaling. Molecular Cancer Research, 2017; 15(11):1608-1622. PMID: 28765266 PMCID: PMC5668165.
  15. Guo P*, Yang J*, Bielenberg DR, Dillon D, Zurakowski D, Moses MA+, Auguste DT+. A quantitative method for screening and identifying molecular targets for nanomedicine. J Controlled Release 2017; 263:57-67. pii: S0168-3659(17):30141-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2017.03.030. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 28341549 (*These authors contributed equally to this work.) (+These authors contributed equally to this work and are co-last authors.)
  16. Guo P+, Yang J+, Jia D, Moses MA*,•, Auguste DT*,•. ICAM-1-Targeted, Lcn2 siRNA-Encapsulating Liposomes are Potent Anti-Angiogenic Agents for Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Theranostics 2016 Jan 1; 6(1):1-13. PMID: 26722369. PMCID: PMC4679350 (+These authors contributed equally to this work and are co-first authors) (*,•These authors contributed equally to this work and are co-last authors)
  17. Jedinak A, Curatolo A, Zurakowski D, Dillon S, Bhasin MK, Libermann TA, Roy R, Sachdev M, Loughlin KR, Moses MA. Novel non-invasive biomarkers that distinguish between benign prostate hyperplasia and prostate cancer. BMC Cancer 2015 Apr 11; 15(1):259 PMID: 25884438. PMCID: PMC4433087.
  18. Jia D, Huang L, Bischoff J, Moses MA. The endogenous zinc finger transcription factor, ZNF24, modulates the angiogenic potential of human microvascular endothelial cells. FASEB J. 2015 Apr; 29(4):1371-1382 (Epub 2015 July 19) PMID: 25550468. PMCID: PMC4734806.
  19. Roy R, Zurakowski D, Wischhusen J, Frauenhoffer C, Hooshmand S, Kulke M, Moses MA. Urinary TIMP-1 and MMP-2 levels detect the presence of pancreatic malignancies. Br J Cancer 2014 Oct 28; 111(9):1772-1779 (Epub 2014 Aug 19). PMID: 25137018 PMCID: PMC4453724.
  20. Guo P*, Huang J*, Wang L, Jia D, Yang J, Dillon DA, Zurakowski D, Mao H, Moses MA, Auguste DT. ICAM-1 as a molecular target for triple negative breast cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2014 Oct 14; 111(41):14710-14715 (Epub 2014 Sep 29 ) (*These authors contributed equally to this work.) PMID: 25267626. PMCID: PMC4205631.
  21. Pelton K, Coticchia CM, Curatolo AS, Schaffner CP, Zurakowski D, Solomon KR, Moses MA. Hypercholesterolemia induces angiogenesis and accelerates growth of breast tumors in vivo. Am J Pathol 2014 Jul; 184(7):2099-20110. PMCID: PMC4076468.
  22. Jia D, Hasso SM, Chan J, D’Amore, Zurakowski D, Rodig SJ, Moses MA. Transcriptional repression of VEGF by ZNF24: mechanistic studies and vascular consequences in vivo. Blood 2013 Jan 24; 121(4): 707-15; Epub 2012 Dec 3. PMCID: PMC3557646. (*Selected for Cover Feature)
  23. Yang J, McNeish B, Butterfield C, Moses MA. Lipocalin 2 is a novel regulator of angiogenesis in human breast cancer. FASEB J 2013; 27(1): 45-50. PMCID: PMC3528324.
  24. Di Vizio D, Morello M, Dudley AC, Schow PW, Adam RM, Morley S, Mulholland D, Rotinen M, Hager MH, Insabato L, Moses MA, Demichelis F, Lisanti MP, Wu H, Klagsbrun M, Bhowmick NA, Rubin MA, D'Souza-Schorey C, Freeman MR. Large oncosomes in human prostate cancer tissues and in the circulation of mice with metastatic disease. Am J Pathol 2012 Nov; 181(15):1573-84. PMCID: PMC3483805.
  25. Roy R, Rodig S, Bielenberg D, Zurakowski D, Moses MA. ADAM12 transmembrane and secreted isoforms promote breast tumor growth and metastasis. J Biol Chem 2011 Jun 10; 286(23); Epub 2011 Apr 14. PMCID: PMC3121517.
  26. Fernandez CA, Roy R, Lee S, Yang J, Panigrahy D, Van Vliet KJ, Moses MA. The anti-angiogenic peptide, Loop 6, binds IGF-IR. J Biol Chem 2010 Dec 31; 285(53); Epub 2010 Oct 12. PMCID: PMC3009916.
  27. Yang J, Bielenberg DR, Rodig SJ, Doiron R, Kung AL, Zurakowski D, Moses MA. Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin promotes breast cancer progression: mechanistic studies and clinical implications. PNAS 2009; 106(10): 3913-3918. PMCID: PMC2656179.
  28. Harper J, Yan L, Louriero R, Wu I, Fang J, D'Amore P, Moses MA. Repression of VEGF expression by the zinc finger transcription factor ZNF24. Cancer Res 2007; 67(18):8736-41.
  29. Pories SE, Zurakowski D, Roy R, Lamb CC, Raza S, Exarhopoulos A, Scheib RG, Schumer S, Lenahan C, Borges V, Louis GW, Anand A, Isakovich N, Hirschfield-Bartek J, Wewer U, Lotz MM, Moses MA. Urinary metalloproteinases: noninvasive biomarkers of breast cancer risk assessment. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008; 17(5):1034-42.
  30. Smith ER, Manfredi M, Scott RM, Black P, Moses MA. A recurrent craniopharyngioma illustrates the potential usefulness of urinary matrix metalloproteinases as noninvasive biomarkers: case report. Neurosurgery 2007; 60(6):E1148-9.