Luis Arnes Perez

Luis Arnes Perez

Group leader, Associate Professor

Member of:

    Luis’s professional career has continually been focused on the study of pancreas biology and related disorders. After completing a Ph.D. in Genetics and Cellular Biology at the Autonoma University in Madrid, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Lori Sussel at Columbia University to study the transcriptional programs that regulate the specification of pancreatic lineages. These studies fostered his interest in understanding how transcriptional regulators of pancreas development contribute to the maintenance of cellular identity and how their dysregulation contributes to diseases. He was the recipient of the Berrie Scholar Award at Columbia University.

    He then received a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) to continue his research. He discovered that long non-coding RNAs are necessary for the control of developmental competence in the differentiation of pancreatic lineages. His postdoctoral work in the Sussel lab made a paradigm-shift in pancreas developmental studies and was pioneer in identifying non-coding regulators of lineage specification.

    After being trained in pancreas development and mouse genetics, he received a Transition Award from JDRF and an Interdisciplinary Research Award from Columbia University to carry out research in the laboratories of Dr. Raul Rabadan and Dr. Ken Olive at Columbia University. Here, Luis continued his studies in transcriptional regulation of cellular identity in the context of cancer. His work showed that cell fate transition in the progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is dynamic and regulated at least in part by non-coding RNAs.

    The Arnes lab at DanStem and BRIC is now focused on understanding the non-coding regulation of cellular plasticity and tumor progression in vivo. 

    ID: 210497267