Aaron Meyer *

Aaron Meyer *

(310) 794-4821

Department of Bioengineering at UCLA
4121G Engineering V
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Affiliations

Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
Member, Bioinformatics GPB Home Area
 

Research Interests

Mapping Mechanisms of Resistance in Cancer

Targeted therapies extend many cancer patients’ lives but are limited in efficacy to a subset of patients and by the development of resistance. Efforts undertaken to identify mechanisms of resistance have uncovered numerous changes involving gene expression, post-translational regulation, and even tumor-extrinsic factors such as host-derived growth factors. Combination therapy can effectively combat resistance but requires accurate identification of the relevant resistance mechanism. Precision therapy must account for many genetic and non-genetic intrinsic and adaptive resistance mechanisms if it will accurately select these combinations.

Projects in the lab include mapping the common essential signaling events that drive resistance, quantifying single cell heterogeneity in drug response, and exploring how the extracellular matrix environment directs resistance development.

Systems Approaches for Rational Immune Therapies

Many immune receptors operate as families with multiple ligands and receptors, expressed across diverse cell populations. The lab’s efforts operate around the central hypothesis that the multiple members of these families are present to perform computation-like regulation across cell populations. Further, we can use engineering analysis tools to measure and manipulate these systems.

We are studying regulation of families like the Tyro3, AXL, MerTK (TAM) tyrosine kinases, Fcγ, and common γ-chain cytokine receptors. In addition to studying how these receptors operate as a family, we are working to develop tools that make visualizing and manipulating family-wide behavior easier.

Biography:

Aaron Meyer is an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, his Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was an independent fellow at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. His awards include the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, Siebel Scholars award, and a Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation Fellowship.

Publications

A selected list of publications: