Jeremy N. Rich, MD, MHS, MBA

Professor of Neurology

Title(s)

  • Deputy Director, Research, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

Biographical Sketch

The goals of the Rich Lab are to identify novel therapeutic paradigms in the treatment of advanced cancers, primarily malignant brain tumors, through the prism of stem cell biology to identify core regulatory pathways amenable to pharmacologic targeting. The aim is to better understand the clinical relevance of cancer stem cells and the interaction with the tumor microenvironment and underlying genetic driver mutations in human cancers. The laboratory has made contributions in several areas, including therapeutic resistance, circadian rhythm, cancer epigenetics, tumor microenvironment, epitranscriptomics, tumor organoids/bioprinting, cancer metabolism, and cancer metabolism. A driving force in our research efforts is leveraging patient-derived tissues and collaborations with other research groups with complementary expertise.

  • Cancer stem cells
  • Glioblastoma
  • Brain tumors
  • Circadian rhythm
  • Oncolytic virus
  • Cancer metabolism
  • Epigenetics
  • Epitranscriptomics

Selected Recent Publications

Shen JZ, Qiu Z, Wu Q, Finlay D, Garcia G, Sun D, Rantala J, Barshop W, Hope JL, Gimple RC, Sangfelt O, Bradley LM, Wohlschlegel J, Rich JN, Spruck C. FBXO44 promotes DNA replication-coupled repetitive element silencing in cancer cells. Cell. 2021 Jan 21;184(2):352-369.e23. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.11.042. Epub 2020 Dec 23. PMID: 33357448; PMCID: PMC8043252.

Wang D, Prager BC, Gimple RC, Aguilar B, Alizadeh D, Tang H, Lv D, Starr R, Brito A, Wu Q, Kim LJY, Qiu Z, Lin P, Lorenzini MH, Badie B, Forman SJ, Xie Q, Brown CE, Rich JN. CRISPR Screening of CAR T Cells and Cancer Stem Cells Reveals Critical Dependencies for Cell-Based Therapies. Cancer Discov. 2021 May;11(5):1192-1211. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-20-1243. Epub 2020 Dec 16. PMID: 33328215; PMCID: PMC8406797.

Dixit D, Prager BC, Gimple RC, Poh HX, Wang Y, Wu Q, Qiu Z, Kidwell RL, Kim LJY, Xie Q, Vitting-Seerup K, Bhargava S, Dong Z, Jiang L, Zhu Z, Hamerlik P, Jaffrey SR, Zhao JC, Wang X, Rich JN. The RNA m6A Reader YTHDF2 Maintains Oncogene Expression and Is a Targetable Dependency in Glioblastoma Stem Cells. Cancer Discov. 2021 Feb;11(2):480-499. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-20-0331. Epub 2020 Oct 6. PMID: 33023892; PMCID: PMC8110214.

Prager BC, Vasudevan HN, Dixit D, Bernatchez JA, Wu Q, Wallace LC, Bhargava S, Lee D, King BH, Morton AR, Gimple RC, Pekmezci M, Zhu Z, Siqueira-Neto JL, Wang X, Xie Q, Chen C, Barnett GH, Vogelbaum MA, Mack SC, Chavez L, Perry A, Raleigh DR, Rich JN. The Meningioma Enhancer Landscape Delineates Novel Subgroups and Drives Druggable Dependencies. Cancer Discov. 2020 Nov;10(11):1722-1741. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-20-0160. Epub 2020 Jul 23. PMID: 32703768; PMCID: PMC8194360.

Michealraj KA, Kumar SA, Kim LJY, Cavalli FMG, Przelicki D, Wojcik JB, Delaidelli A, Bajic A, Saulnier O, MacLeod G, Vellanki RN, Vladoiu MC, Guilhamon P, Ong W, Lee JJY, Jiang Y, Holgado BL, Rasnitsyn A, Malik AA, Tsai R, Richman CM, Juraschka K, Haapasalo J, Wang EY, De Antonellis P, Suzuki H, Farooq H, Balin P, Kharas K, Van Ommeren R, Sirbu O, Rastan A, Krumholtz SL, Ly M, Ahmadi M, Deblois G, Srikanthan D, Luu B, Loukides J, Wu X, Garzia L, Ramaswamy V, Kanshin E, Sánchez-Osuna M, El-Hamamy I, Coutinho FJ, Prinos P, Singh S, Donovan LK, Daniels C, Schramek D, Tyers M, Weiss S, Stein LD, Lupien M, Wouters BG, Garcia BA, Arrowsmith CH, Sorensen PH, Angers S, Jabado N, Dirks PB, Mack SC, Agnihotri S, Rich JN, Taylor MD. Metabolic Regulation of the Epigenome Drives Lethal Infantile Ependymoma. Cell. 2020 Jun 11;181(6):1329-1345.e24. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.047. Epub 2020 May 22. PMID: 32445698.

Zhu Z, Mesci P, Bernatchez JA, Gimple RC, Wang X, Schafer ST, Wettersten HI, Beck S, Clark AE, Wu Q, Prager BC, Kim LJY, Dhanwani R, Sharma S, Garancher A, Weis SM, Mack SC, Negraes PD, Trujillo CA, Penalva LO, Feng J, Lan Z, Zhang R, Wessel AW, Dhawan S, Diamond MS, Chen CC, Wechsler-Reya RJ, Gage FH, Hu H, Siqueira-Neto JL, Muotri AR, Cheresh DA, Rich JN. Zika Virus Targets Glioblastoma Stem Cells through a SOX2-Integrin αvβ5 Axis. Cell Stem Cell. 2020 Feb 6;26(2):187-204.e10. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2019.11.016. Epub 2020 Jan 16. PMID: 31956038.

Morton AR, Dogan-Artun N, Faber ZJ, MacLeod G, Bartels CF, Piazza MS, Allan KC, Mack SC, Wang X, Gimple RC, Wu Q, Rubin BP, Shetty S, Angers S, Dirks PB, Sallari RC, Lupien M, Rich JN, Scacheri PC. Functional Enhancers Shape Extrachromosomal Oncogene Amplifications. Cell. 2019 Nov 27;179(6):1330-1341.e13. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.039. Epub 2019 Nov 21. PMID: 31761532; PMCID: PMC7241652.

Dong Z, Zhang G, Qu M, Gimple RC, Wu Q, Qiu Z, Prager BC, Wang X, Kim LJY, Morton AR, Dixit D, Zhou W, Huang H, Li B, Zhu Z, Bao S, Mack SC, Chavez L, Kay SA, Rich JN. Targeting Glioblastoma Stem Cells through Disruption of the Circadian Clock. Cancer Discov. 2019 Nov;9(11):1556-1573. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-19-0215. Epub 2019 Aug 27. PMID: 31455674; PMCID: PMC6983300.

Wang X, Yang K, Wu Q, Kim LJY, Morton AR, Gimple RC, Prager BC, Shi Y, Zhou W, Bhargava S, Zhu Z, Jiang L, Tao W, Qiu Z, Zhao L, Zhang G, Li X, Agnihotri S, Mischel PS, Mack SC, Bao S, Rich JN. Targeting pyrimidine synthesis accentuates molecular therapy response in glioblastoma stem cells. Sci Transl Med. 2019 Aug 7;11(504):eaau4972. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aau4972. PMID: 31391321; PMCID: PMC7568232.