Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program

The James Fagin Lab

Research

James A. Fagin, MD

Chief, Endocrinology Service, Department of Medicine, Memorial Hospital

The focus of our work is to understand the pathogenesis and the biology of thyroid cancers with the goal of identifying new molecular-based therapies. Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy. Exposure to radiation during childhood confers increased predisposition to this disease. Our lab has been instrumental in characterizing many of the somatic genetic changes associated with thyroid tumor initiation and progression in both radiation-induced and sporadic thyroid cancer, and in defining the functional consequences using in vitro and in vivo experimental models.

View Lab Overview

Featured News

At Work: Endocrinology Service Chief James Fagin

In the Lab

Study Reveals Genetic Causes for Thyroid Cancer Increase after Chernobyl

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

In the Lab

Investigators Sequence the Genome of a Rare Head and Neck Cancer

Friday, May 24, 2013

View All Featured News

Publications

Montero-Conde C, Ruiz-Llorente S, Dominguez JM, Knauf JA, Viale AJ, Sherman EJ, Ryder M, Ghossein RA, Rosen N, Fagin JA. Relief of feedback inhibition of HER3 transcription by RAF and MEK inhibitors attenuates their antitumor effects in BRAF mutant thyroid carcinomas. Cancer Discovery 2013, May;3(5):520-33.

Ho AL, Grewal RK, Leboeuf R, Sherman EJ, Pfister DG, Deandreis D, Pentlow KS, Zanzonico PB, Haque S, Gavane S, Ghossein RA, Ricarte-Filho JC, Dominguez JM, Shen R, Tuttle RM, Larson SM, Fagin JA. Selumetinib-enhanced radioiodine uptake in advanced thyroid cancer. Engl J Med 2013; Feb 14;368(7):623-32.

Chakravarty D, Santos E, Ryder M, Knauf J, Liao XH, West B, Bollag G, Kolesnick R, Thin T, Rosen N, Zanzonico P, Larson S, Refetoff S, Ghossein R, Fagin JA. Small-molecule MAPK inhibitors restore RAI incorporation in murine thyroid cancers with conditional BRAF activation. J Clin Invest. 2011 121(12):4700-11.

Franco AT, Malaguarnera R, Refetoff S, Liao XH, Lundsmith E, Kimura S, Pritchard C, Marais R, Davies TF, Weinstein LS, Chen M, Rosen N, Ghossein R, Knauf JA, Fagin JA. Thyrotrophin receptor signaling dependence of Braf-induced thyroid tumor initiation in mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Jan 10 108(4):1615-20.

Chen X, Mitsutake N, LaPerle K, Akeno N, Zanzonico P, Longo V, Mitsutake S, Kimura E, Geiger H, Santos E, Wendel HG, Franco A, Knauf JA, Fagin JA. Endogenous Expression Of HrasG12V Induces Developmental Defects and Neoplasms with Copy Number Imbalances Of The Oncogene. Proc. Natl Acad Sci USA, 2009 12;106(19):7979-84.

View All Publications

People

James A. Fagin, MD

Chief, Endocrinology Service, Department of Medicine, Memorial Hospital

Physician-scientist James Fagin focuses on the pathogenesis of thyroid cancer and the role of oncogenic kinases.
MD, University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine (Argentina)

646-888-2136: Office Phone
View physician profile: Physician profile

Members

Prasanna Tamarapu Parthasarathy

Research Assistant

Jennifer Cracchiolo

Fellow

Gnana Prakasam Krishnamoorthy
Research Scholar

Maria Elena Rodriguez-Garcia-Rendueles
Research Scholar

Brian Untch, MD — Brian Untch
Assistant Attending

Lab Alumni

Vanessa Dos Anjos
Senior Research Technician

Jeffrey Knauf, PhD — Jeffrey Knauf
Associate Attending Biologist

Luis Javier Leandro Garcia
Research Fellow

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

President, American Thyroid Association (2012)
UK Clinical Endocrinology Trust Medal Lecture Award (2011)
Sydney Ingbar Award, American Thyroid Association (2008)
Merck Prize, European Thyroid Association Award (2007)
Association of American Physicians Award (2001)

American Society of Clinical Investigation Award (1998)

Get in Touch

646-888-2136

Office Phone

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.

James A. Fagin discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

Endocrine Society
Provision of Services
International Thyroid Oncology Group
Provision of Services (uncompensated)
Journal of the Endocrine Society
Provision of Services

Kura Oncology
Intellectual Property Rights
Loxo Oncology
Provision of Services

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, 2020 through disclosure submission in spring 2021). 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 ecoi@mskcc.org.

View all disclosures