Alissa Weaver, M.D., Ph.D.
Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Professor of Pathology Microbiology and Immunology
Director of Vanderbilt Program for Extracellular Vesicle Research
AAAS Fellow - 2016
ASCB Fellow - 2022
- : alissa.weaver@Vanderbilt.Edu
- : 615-936-3529
- :
748 Preston Research Building
2220 Pierce Avenue
Nashville, Tennessee - 37232-6840 - : More Information/Publications
- : Lab Website
How the secretion of small extracellular vesicles from cells promotes aggressive, invasive behavior and facilitates tumor growth and metastasis.
Research Description
Cancer metastasis–the spread of cancer cells to distant organs–is what kills the majority of cancer patients. In order for cells to metastasize, they must acquire an invasive and motile phenotype, degrading and moving through tissue barriers. In addition, they must be able to survive and grow at distant sites in the body.
The Weaver laboratory studies all aspects of this process, focusing particularly on how deregulated signaling in cancer cells drives the invasive and metastatic phenotype.