Antoine Karnoub, PhD
Dr. Karnoub is Principal Investigator in the Department of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Affiliate Member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Karnoub received a Bachelor’s degree in Biology/Chemistry from the Lebanese American University and a Master’s degree in Biochemistry/Molecular Immunology from the American University of Beirut School of Medicine. He then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he trained in Protein Biochemistry, Cell Biology, and Signal Transduction in the laboratories of Drs. Sharon Campbell and Channing Der, culminating in a PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics in 2001.
Dr. Karnoub began his postdoctoral training investigating the biology of Ras GTPases at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center before he transitioned to the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study Tumor Biology in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Weinberg.
Dr. Karnoub’s research led to the discovery of critical participatory roles for stromal progenitor cells called mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) in multiple aspects of breast cancer pathogenesis — such as tumor initiation, growth, dissemination, and metastatic colonization — emphasizing intimate contributions of the tumor microenvironment to carcinoma development and progression. Having delineated key molecular signaling pathways that mediate the heterotypic interactions between tumor-associated MSCs and cancer cells in the context of tumor malignancy, his group’s most recent investigations have described essential roles for non-coding RNAs as determining conduits of tumor-stroma crosstalk.
Their current research is focused on characterizing such networks in more detail with the overall translational objective of identifying novel RNA-based cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets of utility in the oncology clinic.
Dr. Karnoub has been recipient of several awards in support of his work, which include, among others, the Genzyme-Whitehead Institute Award, the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Research Foundation Scholar Award, the Susan G. Komen Catalyst Award, and Breakthrough Awards from the US Department of Defense.