University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · BiochemistryThe Necrosis Lab
David J Shapiro · Champaign, Illinois
Research Focus
Dr. David J. Shapiro's lab focuses on understanding a specific pathway that leads to necrotic cell death in cancer cells, especially in types resistant to traditional therapies. By studying how certain anticancer drugs trigger this process, the lab aims to uncover strategies to improve cancer immunotherapy and combat drug resistance. Their work combines advanced techniques such as CRISPR and mouse models to identify key proteins involved in cell death, which could help in developing more effective treatments for various cancers.
necrotic cell deathcancer immunotherapyCRISPRcalcium channelsdrug resistanceendometrial cancerbreast cancersodium channelsuterine canceroncolytic therapies
Research Aims
4AIM 01Identify and characterize components of the TRPM4 pathway responsible for necrotic cell death.
AIM 02Test the hypothesis that multiple anticancer therapies converge on the UPR-TRPM4-FGD3 pathway.
AIM 03Evaluate the potential of necrosis-inducing agents to enhance immunotherapy for metastatic cancers.
AIM 04Investigate resistance mechanisms to necrosis-inducing drugs using quiescent cancer cell models.
Skills the Lab Values
CRISPRcell culturemouse modelsRNA sequencingWestern blotflow cytometryelectroporationimmunohistochemistryprotein assaysin vivo tumor modeling
Output against the department
Publications333top 18% of dept.72nd of 402
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations12ktop 41% of dept.163rd of 402
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.