Cancer Biology & Genetics Program

The Joan Massagué Lab

Research

Joan Massagué, PhD
Joan Massagué, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Director, Sloan Kettering Institute; Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair; Member, Cancer Biology & Genetics Program

We are interested in metastasis, the cause of 90% of cancer deaths. The lab investigates metastatic stem cells and their stromal niches. The role of immune regulatory and regenerative signals, particularly TGF-β, is of interest. General as well as organ-specific mediators of metastasis are under investigation. We are defining the phenotypic plasticity and evolution of metastatic cell populations from dormancy to outbreak, identifying drug targets, and enabling clinical trials to treat metastasis.

View Lab Overview

VIDEO | 02:08
Go inside the lab of Joan Massagué, Chief Scientific Officer and Director, Sloan Kettering Institute.
Video Details

Publications Highlights

Su, J., M. Morgani, S.M., David, C.J., Wang, Q., Emrah Er, E.E., Huang, Y.-H., Basnet, H., Zou, Y., Shu, W., Hendrickson, R.C., Soni, R.K., Hadjantonakis, A.-K. and Massagué, J. TGF-β orchestrates fibrogenic and developmental EMTs via RAS effector RREB1. Nature 577, 566–571 (2020) [PMC7450666]

View All Publications

People

Joan Massagué, PhD

Joan Massagué, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Director, Sloan Kettering Institute; Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair; Member, Cancer Biology & Genetics Program

  • Joan Massagué studies the control of stem cell growth and phenotype in tumor progression, metastasis, and response to therapy.
  • PhD, University of Barcelona
[email protected]
Email Address
646-888-2044
Office Phone

Members

Lan He
Lan He

Senior Research Assistant

Siting Gan
Siting Gan

Postdoctoral Researcher

Zhenghan Wang
Zhenghan Wang

Sr. Research Scientist

Catherine Bibby

Research Technician

Derniele David
Derniele David

SKI, Senior Admin Assistant

Ines Godet

Research Scholar

Alhaji Janneh

Research Scholar

Kenta Kawasaki
Kenta Kawasaki

Research Fellow

Carson Kenum

Research Technician

Jun Ho Lee
Jun Ho Lee

Research Associate

Jin Suk Park
Jin Suk Park

Research Associate

Constantina (Dina) Rodriguez

Sr. Executive Assistant

Sarah Singer
Sarah Singer

Research Assistant

Elena Spina
Elena Spina

Research Associate

Vijay Yarlagadda
Dig Vijay Yarlagadda

Tri-I PhD, CBM, Graduate Student

Lab Alumni
Saloni Agrawal

Medical Student Mount Sinai, New York

Harihar Basnet

Assistant Professor, Tsinghua University, School of Medicine, Beijing, China

Ekrem Emrah Er

Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Illinois, Chicago

Karuna Ganesh

Assistant Member, Molecular Pharmacology Program, SKI; Medical Oncologist, Department of Medicine

Jessica Hampton

Medical Student, Stanford, CA

Jing Hu, PhD
Jing Hu

Assistant Professor, Peking University

Yun-Han Huang

Fellow, Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

Yasemin Kaygusuz

Postdoctoral Fellow, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN

Weiping Shu

Senior Research Assistant

Jie Su

Sr. Group Leader, Accutar Biotech

Lin Tian

Assistant Professor, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou

Qiong Wang

Assistant Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Victor Acevedo

US Director of Medical Affairs, Precision Medicine, Merck & Co.

Swarnali Acharyya

Herbert Irving Assistant Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology (in the Institute for Cancer Genetics) Avon Products Foundation Assistant Professor of Breast Cancer Research, Columbia University

Claudio Alarcón

Assistant Professor, Pharmacology, Yale School of Medicine

Janet Andres

Supervisory Patent Examiner, US Patent & Trademark Office

Joaquin Arribas

Director of Preclinal Research, Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology, BCN

Liliana Attisano

Chair, Biochemistry, University of Toronto

Anna Bassols

Professor, Veterinary Clinical Biochemistry, Autonomous University of Barcelona

Stacy Blain

Associate Professor, SUNY Downstate Medical Center

Adrienne Boire

Associate Member, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Paula Bos

Assistant Professor, Pathology, Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University

Marcus Bosenberg

Professor, Dermatology & Pathology, Yale School of Medicine

Frederick T. Boyd

Associate Professor, Dine College, Tsaile, AZ

Julia Calonge

Technology Transfer Office, MSKCC, New York

Juan Carcamo

Senior Principal Scientist-Biology, Pfizer, New York

Nadia Cervoni

EVP, Director of Medical and Scientific Affairs at DDB Health, New York

Sela Cheifetz

Professor, University of Toronta

Chang-Rung Chen

Senior Director, ArQule Inc., Woburn, MA

Fei Chen

Assistant Professor, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Qing Chen

Assistant Professor, Immunology, Microenvironment & Metastasis Program, Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center, The Wistar Institute, PA

Ye-Guang Chen

Professor, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, School of Life Sciences, Beijing, China

Anne Chiang

Associate Professor, Medicine; Yale University; Medical Director, New Milford Cancer Center

Supratik Das

Staff Scientist, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY

Charles David

Associate Professor, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Jacqueline Doody

Self-Employed, Consultant in Immuno-oncology

Sheng Gao

Director, Immunology Trans.Sciences, Janssen, New York

Diane George

Member, Pediatric Oncology & Hematology, Columbia University

Roger Gomis

Group Leader, Institut de Recerca Biomedica, Barcelona

Bailey Griscom

Senior Clinical Research Associate at Veracyte, Inc.

Gaorav Gupta

Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology, U. North Carolina Lineberger Cancer Ctr.

Akiko Hata

Professor & Associate Director, Cardiovascular Research Institute, UCSF

Wei He

Chief Scientific Officer, Accutar Biotech, New York

Jyrki Heino

Professor, Biochemistry, U. Turku, Finland

Antonio Iavarone

Professor, Pathology and Neurology, Columbia University, NY

Ronald A. Ignotz

Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Leni Jacob

Scientist II, Biology at BluePrint Medicines

Lata Jayaraman

Executive Vice President and Head of Biology, LifeMine, Cambridge, MA

Xin Jin

Principal Investigator, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China

Gabriela N. Johnson
Gabriela N. Johnson

Scientist @ Pfizer

Yibin Kang

Professor, Molecular Biology, Princeton University

Mi Young Kim

Associate Professor, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, KAIST, Korea

Marcus Kretzschmar

Head of Intellectual Property, Molecular Partners AG; Switzerland

Marikki Laiho

Director, Division Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

George Lampe

Graduate Student @ Columbia University

Ashley M. Laughney

Assistant Professor, Physiology and Biophysics, Cornell University

Hong-Van Le

Patent Attorney, Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research, Boston

Derek Lee

Research Technician

Mong-Hong Lee

Professor, Molecular and Cellular Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center

Liangji Li

Research Scholar

Fang Liu

Associate Professor, Center for Advanced Biotechnology & Medicine, Rutgers Cancer Institute, NJ

Roger Lo

Director, Melanoma Clinic Dermatology, University of California, LA

Fernando Lopez-Casillas

Professor, Instituto de Fisiologia Cellular, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

Alejandro Lopez-Soto

Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Oviedo, Spain

Yan Luo

Senior Medical Director at AbbVie, Chicago

Danilo G. Macalinao

Student, St. Joseph's Seminary, Washington, DC

Srinivas Malladi

Assistant Professor of Pathology, UT Southwestern Med, Dallas

Dina Marenstein

SVP, Medical & Scientific Services at Chameleon Communications International, New York

Andy Minn

Professor, Radiation Oncology, Perelman School of Medicine, U. Pennsylvania

Cristina Nadal

Medical Oncologist, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain

Don Nguyen

Associate Professor, Pathology & Medical Oncology, Yale University

Anna Obenauf

Group Leader, Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, Austria

Masahiko Ohtsuki

Senior Executive Officer, Digital Transformation, Daiichi Sankyo, Tokyo

Thordur Oskarsson

Member, Department of Molecular Oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Florida

David Padua

Gastroenterologist, Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles

Atanasio Pandiella

Investigator, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Salamanca

Boris Pasche

Professor, Cancer Biology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, NC

Lila Peters

GSK, Graduate Student

Kornelia Polyak

Professor, Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University

Celio Pouponnot

Research Director, CNRS and Institute Curie, Paris

David Ralph

Senior Director, Drug and Diagnostic Development, Navidea, Columbus, OH

Inga Reynisdottir

Principal Investigator, Landspitali University Hospital; University of Iceland

Lars Rönnstrand

Team Manager, Molecular Cancer Research, Lund University, Sweden

Gopal Sapkota

Professor, University of Dundee, UK

Joan Seoane

Research Director, Vall Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona

Sayyed Hamed Shahoei, PhD
Sayyed Hamed Shahoei

The Jackson Laboratory, CT

Jason Shieh

Creacion Ventures, Cambridge, MA

Peter Siegel

Associate Professor, Biochemistry & Medicine, McGill University

Carmella Stephens

Partner at Carter, DeLuca, Farrell & Schmidt, LLP

Sohail Tavazoie

Professor, Rockefeller University, New York

Joaquin Teixido

Professor, CIB, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid

Dori Thomas

Founder at Synthis LLC, LaunchLabs at Alexandria Center, New York

Luis Ulloa

Associate Professor, Anesthesiology, Duke University, NC

Manuel Valiente-Cortes

Group Leader, CNIO, National Cancer Research Center, Madrid, Spain

Sakari Vanharanta

Group Leader, Translational Cancer Medicine Program, University of Helsinki, Finland

Francesc Ventura

Professor, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, University of Barcelona

Denis Vivien

Professor, Universite de Caen, France

Qiongqing Wang

Staff Scientist, Hoffman-La Roche, Inc.

Beverly Warner

Genetic Counselor, Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Australia

Frances M.B. Weis

Head, Bi-Institutional Antibody & Bioresource Core Facility, MSKCC

Rotraud Wieser

Associate Professor, Medicine, University of Vienna, Austria

David Wotton

Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics, University of Virginia

Jeffrey L. Wrana

Senior Investigator, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, U. Toronto

Qiaoran (Karen) Xi

Associate Professor, Tsinghua University, School of Life Sciences, Beijing, China

Lan Xu

Senior Director, Translational Research, Ikena Oncology, Cambridge, MA

Alexia Zaromytidou

Chief Editor, Nature Cancer @ Nature Publishing

Alejandro Zentella

Member, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion, Mexico

Xiang (Shawn) Zhang

Professor, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston

Yilong Zou

Assistant Professor, Westlake University, China

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

  • Chief Scientific Officer, MSKCC (2023–)
  • Director, Sloan Kettering Institute (2014–)
  • HHMI Scientific Review Board (2014–)
  • HHMI Investigator (1990-2013)
  • Fellow, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Academy (2016)
Read more
  • Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research (2016)
  • Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Prize for Cancer Research (2015)
  • National Prize for Research in Biology, Spain (2014)
  • American Italian Cancer Foundation Price (2013)
  • Prize in Cancer Research, Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation (2011)
  • Frontiers Prize in Biomedicine, BBVA Foundation (2008)
  • Vilcek Prize, Vilcek Foundation (2006)
  • Member, Institute of Medicine (2006)
  • Award in Science and Technology, Prince Asturius Foundation (2004)
  • Member, National Academy of Sciences (2000)
  • Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1999)
  • Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1990)
  • Elucidation of the TGF-beta pathway

Lab News & Events

Accolades

Team Recognitions

  • The Massague Lab held a Baby shower in Honor of Alhaji Janneh and his family. We are so excited in the arrival of your little one !
  • Farewell Hamed : Hamed Shahoei departed the Massague Lab in November
  • Congratulations Dr. Massague : A Symposium was held to celebrate Dr. Massague's 70th Birthday in September!
  • Welcome to the Massague Lab: Alhaji Janneh who arrived in September from Medical University of South Carolina
  • Congratulations: Jing Hu departed in July to an faculty position at Peking University
  • Congratulations : Congratulations to Gabi Johnson who accepted a position with Pfizer as a Scientist in May .
  • Welcome to the Massague Lab: Ines Godet joined in January from Johns Hopkins University, Maryland
  • Welcome to the Massague Lab: Carson Kenum arrived in September from the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor
  • Welcome to the Massague Lab: Catherine Bibby July arrived from Binghamton University
  • Welcome to the Massague Lab: Kenta Kawasaki arrived in October from Keio University School of Medicine.
  • Welcome to the Massague Lab : Elena Spina arrived in August from University of Calabria.
  • Welcome to the Massague Lab: Dylan Manuele arrived in June from the University of Rochester.
  • Congratulations: Our first in person lab meeting for 2021!
  • The Massague Lab celebrates the arrival of Zhenghan Wang’s daughter Everly!
  • Farewell: Weiping Shu has retired from the Massague lab after many years of fantastic service as a senior research technician. Thank you Weiping for all your contributions!
  • Congratulations: Harihar Basnet who departed in February as Assistant professor in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences at Tsinghua University
  • Welcome: Sayyed Hamed Shahoei who joined in November from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Congratulations : Lin Tian who departed in November as research investigator at the division of Biomarker Discovery, Shanghai China
  • Welcome to the Massague Lab: Lila Peters arrived in July from the University of Michigan
  • Congratulations: George Lampe departed in July to Graduate School at Columbia University.
  • Welcome to the Massague Lab: Jun Ho Lee joined in May from UNIST, Uslan, Republic of Korea
  • Welcome to the Massague Lab: Jin Suk Park joined in March from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
The Massague Lab held a Baby shower in Honor of Alhaji Janneh and his family. We are so excited in the arrival of your little one !
Congratulations Dr. Massague : A Symposium was held to celebrate Dr. Massague's 70th Birthday in September!

Congratulations Dr. Massague : A Symposium was held to celebrate Dr. Massague's 70th Birthday in September!

Congratulations: Jing Hu departed in July to an faculty position at Peking University

Congratulations: Jing Hu departed in July to an faculty position at Peking University

Congratulations to Dr. Yasemin Kaygusuz

Congratulations to Dr. Yasemin Kaygusuz : Yasemin defended her thesis on 12/2 , Congratulations Yasemin !

2022 Massague Holiday Party

2022 Massague Holiday Party

Congratulations : The Massague Lab celebrates the arrival of Jun Ho Lee’s daughter Noa!!

Congratulations : The Massague Lab celebrates the arrival of Jun Ho Lee’s daughter Noa!!

Annual Home Gathering

Dr. Massague invited the postdocs to his home for an annual gathering.

Congratulations : The Massague Lab celebrates the arrival of Zhenghan Wang’s daughter Everly!

The Massague Lab celebrates the arrival of Zhenghan Wang’s daughter Everly!

Happy Birthday Gabi

In October 2021, A small birthday celebration was held for Gabi.

August : Happy Hour Cruise

The Massague Lab had the pleasure to attend a summer happy hour cruise! It was a wonderful time!

Happy Birthday Joan

Happy Birthday Joan !

Congratulations: Our first in person lab meeting for 2021!

The Massague Lab attending their Friday Lab Meetings!

Happy Birthday Joan :  Post Doc Jin Suk Park playing the clarinet for Dr. Massague’s Birthday!

Happy Birthday Joan: Post Doc Jin Suk Park playing the clarinet for Joan’s Birthday!

The Massague Lab at a farewell dinner

In June 2019, we bid a farewell to one of our Research Techs, Jessica Hampton. Jessica will be leaving to attend Med school at Stanford University. The Massague Lab wishes her well in all of her future endeavors

Farewell: Weiping Shu

Farewell: Weiping Shu has retired from the Massague lab after many years of fantastic service as a senior research technician. Thank you Weiping for all your contributions!

Scientific image

March 2019 - Paper Published. During metastasis, cancer cells spread to distant organs where they divide to form microscopic clusters, or micrometastases, that can grow into new tumors. Identification of genes activated in micrometastases can reveal therapeutic targets that can kill cancer cells before they grow into larger tumors that are harder to treat.

Happy Birthday Joan

The Massague Lab came together to wish Dr. Massague a Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Joan

The Massague Lab came together to celebrate Dr. Massague's Birthday

2021 Holiday Party

The Massague Lab at Holiday Party

View All Lab News & Events

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

Post Doctoral Position

Apply now

Get in Touch

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Joan Massagué discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

  • Institute Research Biomedicine, Barcelona, Spain
    Professional Services and Activities
  • Scholar Rock
    Equity

The information published here is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.


This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2022 through disclosure submission in spring 2023). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].


View all disclosures