Skip to nav Skip to content
Karen  Mann

Karen Mann, PhD

Program: Molecular Oncology

Research Program: Cancer Biology & Evolution Program

View Lab Page

Contact

  • Overview

    Associations

    • Gastrointestinal Oncology
    • Molecular Oncology
    • Malignant Hematology
    • Cancer Biology & Evolution Program
    • Center of Excellence for Evolutionary Therapy

    Education & Training

    Graduate:

    • Case Western Reserve University, PhD - Genetics

    Fellowship:

    • National Cancer Institute -
    • Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology -
  • Research Interest

    Insertional mutagenesis is a powerful gene discovery tool for cancer biology. Many solid tumor types, including pancreatic cancer, are highly molecularly heterogeneous, which poses a major challenge for identifying genetic events that actively contribute to tumor progression. We combined the Sleeping Beauty (SB) insertional mutagenesis system with a mouse model of pancreatic cancer and identified a number of recurrently mutated genes that cooperate with oncogenic Kras to drive pancreatic cancer progression and metastasis. My lab is focused on characterizing two progression drivers involved in gene transcription and alternative splicing, respectively, and the contribution of their deregulated gene networks to metastasis. We recently reported a new sequencing technology to uncover cooperating SB insertion events in tumors using single cell sequencing. Applying this approach to an SB model of myeloid leukemia, we showed that recurrently activated Ets- related transcription factors Erg and Ets1 operate in different cell populations within the same tumor. Furthermore, these genes have different co-occurring oncogenic partners that may contribute to clonal selection and tumor progression. My lab is using this sequencing approach to characterize the intra- and inter-tumor heterogeneity in our myeloid leukemia model in order to identify clonally selected cooperating oncogenes that contribute to tumorigenesis and can be targeted by single agent or combination therapies. We will use the SB transposon to track genomic changes induced by therapeutic regimens used to treat myeloid leukemia in order to characterize how these agents reprogram gene networks to affect tumor growth.

  • Publications

    • Maurin M, Ranjouri M, Megino-Luque C, Newberg JY, Du D, Martin K, Miner RE, Prater MS, Wee DKB, Centeno B, Pruett-Miller SM, Stewart P, Fleming JB, Yu X, Bravo-Cordero JJ, Guccione E, Black MA, Mann KM. RBFOX2 deregulation promotes pancreatic cancer progression and metastasis through alternative splicing. Nat Commun. 2023 Dec.14(1):8444. Pubmedid: 38114498. Pmcid: PMC10730836.
    • Vaishnavi A, Juan J, Jacob M, Stehn C, Gardner EE, Scherzer MT, Schuman S, van Veen JE, Murphy B, Hackett CS, Dupuy AJ, Chmura SA, van der Weyden L, Newberg JY, Liu A, Mann K, Rust AG, Weiss WA, Kinsey CG, Adams DJ, Grossmann A, Mann MB, McMahon M. Transposon Mutagenesis Reveals RBMS3 Silencing as a Promoter of Malignant Progression of BRAFV600E-Driven Lung Tumorigenesis. Cancer Res. 2022 Nov.82(22):4261-4273. Pubmedid: 36112789. Pmcid: PMC9664136.
    • Ho JS, Di Tullio F, Schwarz M, Low D, Incarnato D, Gay F, Tabaglio T, Zhang J, Wollmann H, Chen L, An O, Chan THM, Hall Hickman A, Zheng S, Roudko V, Chen S, Karz A, Ahmed M, He HH, Greenbaum BD, Oliviero S, Serresi M, Gargiulo G, Mann KM, Hernando E, Mulholland D, Marazzi I, Wee DKB, Guccione E. HNRNPM controls circRNA biogenesis and splicing fidelity to sustain cancer cell fitness. Elife. 2021 Jun.10. Pubmedid: 34075878. Pmcid: PMC8346284.
    • Aiderus A, Contreras-Sandoval AM, Meshey AL, Newberg JY, Ward JM, Swing DA, Copeland NG, Jenkins NA, Mann KM, Mann MB. Promoterless Transposon Mutagenesis Drives Solid Cancers via Tumor Suppressor Inactivation. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Jan.13(2). Pubmedid: 33435458. Pmcid: PMC7827284.
    • Aiderus A, Newberg JY, Guzman-Rojas L, Contreras-Sandoval AM, Meshey AL, Jones DJ, Amaya-Manzanares F, Rangel R, Ward JM, Lee SC, Ban KH, Rogers K, Rogers SM, Selvanesan L, McNoe LA, Copeland NG, Jenkins NA, Tsai KY, Black MA, Mann KM, Mann MB. Transposon mutagenesis identifies cooperating genetic drivers during keratinocyte transformation and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma progression. PLoS Genet. 2021 Aug.17(8):e1009094. Pubmedid: 34398873. Pmcid: PMC8389471.
    • Newberg JY, Black MA, Jenkins NA, Copeland NG, Mann KM, Mann MB. SB Driver Analysis: a Sleeping Beauty cancer driver analysis framework for identifying and prioritizing experimentally actionable oncogenes and tumor suppressors. Nucleic Acids Res. 2018 Sep.46(16):e94. Pubmedid: 29846651. Pmcid: PMC6144815.
    • Newberg JY, Mann KM, Mann MB, Jenkins NA, Copeland NG. SBCDDB: Sleeping Beauty Cancer Driver Database for gene discovery in mouse models of human cancers. Nucleic Acids Res. 2018 Jan.46(D1):D1011-D1017. Pubmedid: 29059366. Pmcid: PMC5753260.
    • Mann KM, Newberg JY, Black MA, Jones DJ, Amaya-Manzanares F, Guzman-Rojas L, Kodama T, Ward JM, Rust AG, van der Weyden L, Yew CC, Waters JL, Leung ML, Rogers K, Rogers SM, McNoe LA, Selvanesan L, Navin N, Jenkins NA, Copeland NG, Mann MB. Analyzing tumor heterogeneity and driver genes in single myeloid leukemia cells with SBCapSeq. Nat Biotechnol. 2016 Sep.34(9):962-972. Pubmedid: 27479497. Pmcid: PMC6124494.
    • Mann KM, Ying H, Juan J, Jenkins NA, Copeland NG. KRAS-related proteins in pancreatic cancer. Pharmacol Ther. 2016 Dec.168:29-42. Pubmedid: 27595930.
    • Goh AM, Xue Y, Leushacke M, Li L, Wong JS, Chiam PC, Rahmat SA, Mann MB, Mann KM, Barker N, Lozano G, Terzian T, Lane DP. Mutant p53 accumulates in cycling and proliferating cells in the normal tissues of p53 R172H mutant mice. Oncotarget. 2015 Jul.6(20):17968-17980. Pubmedid: 26255629. Pmcid: PMC4627229.
    • Mann KM, Jenkins NA, Copeland NG, Mann MB. Transposon insertional mutagenesis models of cancer. Cold Spring Harb Protoc. 2014 Mar.2014(3):235-247. Pubmedid: 24591685.
    • Mann MB, Jenkins NA, Copeland NG, Mann KM. Sleeping Beauty mutagenesis: exploiting forward genetic screens for cancer gene discovery. Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2014 Feb.24:16-22. Pubmedid: 24657532.
    • Biankin AV, Waddell N, Kassahn KS, Gingras MC, Muthuswamy LB, Johns AL, Miller DK, Wilson PJ, Patch AM, Wu J, Chang DK, Cowley MJ, Gardiner BB, Song S, Harliwong I, Idrisoglu S, Nourse C, Nourbakhsh E, Manning S, Wani S, Gongora M, Pajic M, Scarlett CJ, Gill AJ, Pinho AV, Rooman I, Anderson M, Holmes O, Leonard C, Taylor D, Wood S, Xu Q, Nones K, Fink JL, Christ A, Bruxner T, Cloonan N, Kolle G, Newell F, Pinese M, Mead RS, Humphris JL, Kaplan W, Jones MD, Colvin EK, Nagrial AM, Humphrey ES, Chou A, Chin VT, Chantrill LA, Mawson A, Samra JS, Kench JG, Lovell JA, Daly RJ, Merrett ND, Toon C, Epari K, Nguyen NQ, Barbour A, Zeps N, Kakkar N, Zhao F, Wu YQ, Wang M, Muzny DM, Fisher WE, Brunicardi FC, Hodges SE, Reid JG, Drummond J, Chang K, Han Y, Lewis LR, Dinh H, Buhay CJ, Beck T, Timms L, Sam M, Begley K, Brown A, Pai D, Panchal A, Buchner N, De Borja R, Denroche RE, Yung CK, Serra S, Onetto N, Mukhopadhyay D, Tsao MS, Shaw PA, Petersen GM, Gallinger S, Hruban RH, Maitra A, Iacobuzio-Donahue CA, Schulick RD, Wolfgang CL, Morgan RA, Lawlor RT, Capelli P, Corbo V, Scardoni M, Tortora G, Tempero MA, Mann KM, Jenkins NA, Perez-Mancera PA, Adams DJ, Largaespada DA, Wessels LF, Rust AG, Stein LD, Tuveson DA, Copeland NG, Musgrove EA, Scarpa A, Eshleman JR, Hudson TJ, Sutherland RL, Wheeler DA, Pearson JV, McPherson JD, Gibbs RA, Grimmond SM. Pancreatic cancer genomes reveal aberrations in axon guidance pathway genes. Nature. 2012 Nov.491(7424):399-405. Pubmedid: 23103869. Pmcid ...
    • Goh AM, Lim CY, Chiam PC, Li L, Mann MB, Mann KM, Menendez S, Lane DP. Using targeted transgenic reporter mice to study promoter-specific p53 transcriptional activity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jan.109(5):1685-1690. Pubmedid: 22307631. Pmcid: PMC3277193.
    • Mann KM, Ward JM, Yew CC, Kovochich A, Dawson DW, Black MA, Brett BT, Sheetz TE, Dupuy AJ, Chang DK, Biankin AV, Waddell N, Kassahn KS, Grimmond SM, Rust AG, Adams DJ, Jenkins NA, Copeland NG. Sleeping Beauty mutagenesis reveals cooperating mutations and pathways in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Apr.109(16):5934-5941. Pubmedid: 22421440. Pmcid: PMC3341075.
    • Jiang Q, Lee CY, Mandrekar S, Wilkinson B, Cramer P, Zelcer N, Mann K, Lamb B, Willson TM, Collins JL, Richardson JC, Smith JD, Comery TA, Riddell D, Holtzman DM, Tontonoz P, Landreth GE. ApoE promotes the proteolytic degradation of Abeta. Neuron. 2008 Jun.58(5):681-693. Pubmedid: 18549781. Pmcid: PMC2493297.
    • Mann KM, Thorngate FE, Katoh-Fukui Y, Hamanaka H, Williams DL, Fujita S, Lamb BT. Independent effects of APOE on cholesterol metabolism and brain Abeta levels in an Alzheimer disease mouse model. Hum Mol Genet. 2004 Sep.13(17):1959-1968. Pubmedid: 15229191.
    • Lehman EJ, Kulnane LS, Gao Y, Petriello MC, Pimpis KM, Younkin L, Dolios G, Wang R, Younkin SG, Lamb BT. Genetic background regulates beta-amyloid precursor protein processing and beta-amyloid deposition in the mouse. Hum Mol Genet. 2003 Nov.12(22):2949-2956. Pubmedid: 14506131.
  • Grants

    • Title: RBFOX2 deregulation promotes pancreatic cancer progression through alternative splicing
      Sponsor: Nat Institutes of Health
      PI: Mann, K.

Find a Researcher Search