Cancer Biology & Genetics Program
The Richard White Lab
Research

Zebrafish models of cancer
The zebrafish has emerged as a new model for studying cancer progression and metastasis. We have developed a transparent strain of zebrafish, called casper, that allows for single-cell imaging of how tumor cells interact with cells in the microenvironment. These cell-cell interactions play fundamental roles in shaping tumor cell behavior. Using a zebrafish model of melanoma, we use state of the art genetic engineering and high-resolution imaging to dissect these interactions. Our goal is to understand the mechanisms that allow tumors to successfully disseminate and take hold in new locations, which is the major cause of cancer mortality.

Featured News
Publications
Baggiolini A+, Callahan SJ+, Trieu T, Tagore MM, Montal E, Weiss JM, Tischfield SE, Fan Y, Campbell NR, Saurat N, Hollmann T, Simon-Vermot T, Tickoo SK, Taylor BS, Koche R, Khurana E, Studer L*, White RM*. +co-authors, *co-corresponding authors. Developmental chromatin programs determine oncogenic competence in melanoma. 2020, in revision, available at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.09.081554v1.
Weiss JM, Hunter MV, Tagore M, Ma Y, Misale S, Simon-Vermot T, Campbell NR, Newell F, Wilmott JS, Johansson PA, Thompson JF, Long GV, Pearson JV, Mann GJ, Scolyer RA, Waddell N, Montal ED, Huang T, Jonsson P, Donoghue MTA, Harris CC, Taylor BS, Ariyan CE, Solit DB, Wolchok JD, Merghoub T, Rosen N, Hayward NK, White RM. Anatomic position determines oncogenic specificity in melanoma. 2020, in review, available at: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.14.383083v1
Campbell NR , Zhang M , Baron M , Heilmann S , Deforet M , Ferretti L , Huang TH , Levesque M , Yanai I , Xavier JB*, White RM*, *co-corresponding authors. Cell state diversity promotes metastasis through heterotypic cluster formation in melanoma. 2020, in revision, available at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.24.265140v1
Hunter MV+, Moncada R+, Weiss JM, Yanai I*, White RM*,+co-authors, *co-corresponding authors. Spatial transcriptomics reveals the architecture of the tumor/microenvironment interface. 2020, in review, available at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.05.368753v1
Lumaqin D+, Johns E+, Weiss JM, Montal E, Ooladipupo O, Abuhashem A, White RM. An in vivo reporter for tracking lipid droplet dynamics in transparent zebrafish. +co-authors. 2020, in revision, available at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.09.375667v1
People

Richard White, MD, PhD
- Cancer biologist and oncologist Richard White uses the zebrafish to dissect interactions between tumor cells and the microenvironment that promote metastasis.
- Albany Medical College: M.D., Ph.D.
- Yale New Haven Hospital: Internal Medicine Residency & Chief Residency
- Dana Farber Cancer Institute & Massachusetts General Hospital: Medical Oncology Fellowship
- Children’s Hospital Boston & Harvard Medical School: Postdoctoral Fellowship
- whiter@mskcc.org
- Email Address
- View physician profile
- Physician profile
Members












Clinical Fellow

MD–PhD student

Postdoctoral Fellow

Postdoctoral Fellow

Assistant

MD-PhD student

Senior Technician

Research Fellow



MD, PhD Student

- Princeton University

- BS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

- University of Texas Austin

Lab Alumni

Medical Director at Havas Health & You, New York, NY

Assistant

Senior Research Technician

Research Technician

Postdoctoral Fellow

Postdoctoral Fellow

Graduate Student

Graduate Student


Graduate Student

Lab Affilations
Achievements
- NIH Directors New Innovator Award
- Young Mentor Award, Melanoma Research Alliance
- Young Investigator Award, American Association for Cancer Research/American Society of Clinical Oncology
- Young Mentor Award, Harvard Medical School
- Outstanding Educator Award, Yale School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine
Open Positions
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.
Richard White discloses the following relationships and financial interests:
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Consano
Provision of Services (uncompensated)
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N-of-One Therapeutics, Inc.
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, 2019 through disclosure submission in spring 2020). 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.
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