Memorial Hospital Research Laboratories
The J. Joshua Smith Lab
Research
The J. Joshua Smith Laboratory focuses on making better models of rectal cancer (RC). My laboratory group developed the first patient-derived rectal cancer organoids. These rectal cancer organoids recapitulate the clinical and molecular features of patients with rectal cancer and uniquely reflect the clinical responses to therapy of the patients from which they were derived. I obtained an R37 grant from the National Institutes of Health to further develop and expand this rectal cancer model, and my work as a clinician and clinical trialist completely overlaps with my basic and translational work. Our focus is on improving response to neoadjuvant therapies for patients with rectal cancer by developing better disease models. I have a strong collaborative relationship with surgeon Julio Garcia-Aguilar, Chief of the Colorectal Service; radiation oncologist Paul Romesser; and surgeon Philip Paty, and through this unique collaborative initiative, we have been able to identify novel radiosensitizers to take forward into phase 1 clinical trials with parallel co-clinical trials in patient-derived organoids. Further, we have improved our initial in vivo endoluminal rectal cancer model by translating it to the immunocompetent setting to better understand the biology contributing to chemoresistance and radioresistance in rectal cancer.
Research Projects
Publications Highlights
Kim JK, Wu C, Del Latto M. Gao Y, Choi S, Kierstead M, Sauve C, First C, Chaves Perez A, Sillanpaa J, Chen C, Lawrence K, Paty P, Barriga F, Shia J, Sawyers C, Lowe S, Garcia-Aguilar J, Romesser PB, * J. Joshua Smith.* A new immunocompetent rectal cancer model to study radiation therapy. bioRxiv 479335 [Preprint]. February 10, 2022. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.07.479335
People
J. Joshua Smith, MD, PhD, FACS
Surgical Oncologist
- The Smith Lab studies rectal cancer, and we developed the first patient-derived rectal cancer organoids. These rectal cancer organoids recapitulate the clinical and molecular features of patients with rectal cancer and uniquely reflect the clinical responses to therapy of the patients from which they were derived.
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- Email Address
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Members
Lab Alumni
Lab Affiliations
Achievements
- R37 NCI MERIT Award for Early-Stage Investigators - National Cancer Institute (March 2020 to present))
- R37: Expansion of Tumoroid Models for Precise Treatment of Rectal Cancer Patient - National Cancer Institute (March 2020-present)
- Leveraging Radiation Induced Senescence (RIS) to Potentiate Anti-Tumor Immunity - Geoffrey Beene Cancer Center (2021-2022)
- Translational Platform for the Development, Characterization, and Clinical Assessment of Radiation Sensitizers in Rectal Cancer - Imaging and Radiation Sciences Program Seed Grant–MSK (2019-2021)
- 27th Franklin Martin, MD, FACS Faculty Research Fellowship - American College of Surgeons (2017-2019)
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- ASCRS Career Development Award - American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (2017-2019)
- 2016 Joel J. Roslyn Faculty Research Award - Association of Academic Surgery (February 2016)
- Michael E. Burt, MD, PhD, Award for Clinical Excellence - Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Department of Surgery (June 2015)
Open Positions
To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center
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Get in Touch
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Lab Head Email
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.
J. Joshua Smith discloses the following relationships and financial interests:
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Foundation Medicine
Professional Services and Activities -
GlaxoSmithKline
Professional Services and Activities
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Johnson & Johnson
Professional Services and Activities -
Vaniam Group
Professional Services and Activities
The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and 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, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). 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].