The Maley Lab focuses on the evolution of cancer, both at the level of cells evolving in neoplasms and at the level of the effects of cancer as a selective pressure on multicellular organisms. The Maley laboratory is exploring fundamental concepts in neoplastic progression, the processes by which normal tissue becomes cancerous, and the evolution of therapeutic resistance, for purposes of developing better methods for cancer prevention and therapy.
The Maley laboratory studies the evolution of clones during neoplastic progression of Barrett's esophagus as well as the selective effects of therapy in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and esophageal adenocarcinoma. It is also developing the comparative biology of cancer to determine how large, long-lived organisms like whales are able to suppress cancer 1000-fold better than humans.
The Maley laboratory is applying evolutionary and ecological theory to neoplastic progression and cancer therapy in order to modulate the evolution of neoplastic cells and thereby prevent cancer and its relapse. It take three, mutually reinforcing approaches to these problems: computational simulations to explore hypotheses, data mining of (and application of evolutionary theory to) genetic and epigenetic data from neoplasms, as well as evolutionary experiments in tissue culture.