Abdullah Osman
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center at Houston
Department of Head and Neck Surgery
My research interest focuses on exploiting vulnerability associated with targeting the DNA damage repair and replication stress responses for the treatment of high risk head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) harboring oncogenic TP53 mutations and HPV infection. Recently, my research group has discovered that HPV-positive HNSCC tumor cells are exquisitely sensitive to a drug that blocks RAD51, a protein involved in homologous recombination repair and replication fork stability, due to a possible novel feedback mechanism between replication machinery and the HPV oncogene E7. Cisplatin-based chemotherapy is used for treating the majority of patients with advanced stage HNSCC, however, cisplatin resistance, both intrinsic and acquired, is frequently encountered in clinical practice and has been linked to treatment failure and development of distant metastasis. Therefore, it is critical to understand how tumor cells survive the stress of cisplatin or evolve into therapy-resistant populations. To understand the molecular mechanisms of such resistance, our laboratory has recently discovered that dysregulated and epigenetically reprogrammed KEAP1–NRF2 signaling pathway is a major driver in head and neck tumor progression and distant metastasis during acquisition of cisplatin resistance.
Interested graduate students will have an opportunity to develop a variety of tutorial knowledge through participation in ongoing research projects within the laboratory, which include 1) Targeting replication stress and homologous recombination repair mechanisms in HPV-positive and negative head and neck cancer, 2) Defining the role of KEAP/NRF2 signaling dysregulation and sensory nerve reprograming during acquisition of cisplatin resistance and metastasis in HNSCC, and 3) Targeting Wee1 and ATR signaling pathways as a therapeutic strategy to enhance immunotherapy in head and neck cancer. These projects depend on several in vitro and in vivo preclinical models of HNSCC combined with the state-of-the art transcriptomic and epigenetic profiling platforms.
Education & Training
Ph.D. - The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio - 2000