Cancer Biology & Genetics Program

The Richard White Lab

Richard White, MD, PhD

Zebrafish models of cancer

We are interested in the ways in which developmental programs affect cancer progression, and how these programs are altered by the microenvironment. To address these questions, we primarily utilize the zebrafish as a model, given its strengths in genetic manipulation and imaging, which is enhanced in our previously developed transparent casper strain of fish. We additionally use human pluripotent stem cell models of cancer to complement what can be done in vivo in the fish. With state-of-the-art genetic engineering and high-resolution imaging, our goal is to dissect these interactions to understand how tumors start and eventually metastasize to new locations.

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Featured News

A Look Inside the Richard White Lab at MSK

How the Richard White Lab Studies Zebrafish to Understand Cancer

Cancer biologist and oncologist Richard White studies zebrafish to understand how tumors start and why they eventually metastasize to new locations.

An illustration of a fish fin touching a human finger

Hands, Feet, and Fins: The Connection That Explains Acral Melanoma

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Sloan Kettering Institute scientists are using zebrafish to understand human skin cancer that attacks the hands and feet.

A collage of photos showing a zebrafish with GFP-labeled melanocytes, magnified GFP-labeled melanocytes, and hPSC-derived melanocytes growing in a dish.

Why Are Only Some Cells ‘Competent’ to Form Cancer? MSK Scientists Say Context Is Key

Friday, September 3, 2021

Experiments with zebrafish and human pluripotent stem cells reveal the necessary ingredients, besides genetic mutations, that fuel the development of melanoma.

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Publications

Baggiolini A⁺, Callahan SJ⁺, Montal E, Weiss JM, Trieu T, Tagore MM, Tischfield SE, Walsh RM, Suresh S, Fan Y, Campbell NR, Perlee SC, Saurat N, Hunter MV, Simon-Vermot T, Huang TH, Ma Y, Hollmann T, Tickoo SK, Taylor BS, Khurana E, Koche RP, Studer L*, White RM* (2021). ⁺co-authors, *co-corresponding authors. Developmental chromatin programs determine oncogenic competence in melanoma. Science 373 (1104): abc1048. PMCID pending.

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, Lezcano-Lopez C, Hayward NK, White RM (2021). Anatomic position determines oncogenic specificity in melanoma. in revision, available at: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.14.383083v1

Campbell NR, Rao A, Hunter MV, Sznurkowska MK, Briker L, Zhang M, Baron M, Heilman S, Deforet M, Kenny C, Ferretti LP, Huang TH, Perlee SC, Garg M, Nsengimana J, Saini M, Montal E, Tagore M, Newton-Bishop J, Middleton MR, Corrie P, Adams DJ, Rabbie R, Aceto N, Levesque MP, Cornell RA, Yanai I, Xavier JB*, White RM* (2021). *co-corresponding authors. Cell state diversity promotes metastasis through heterotypic cluster formation in melanoma. Developmental Cell, 2021 Sep 13:S1534-5807(21)00677-8

Hunter MV⁺, Moncada R⁺, Weiss JM, Yanai I*, White RM* (2021). ⁺co-authors, *co-corresponding authors. Spatial transcriptomics reveals the architecture of the tumor/microenvironment interface, Nature Communications, in press, available at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.05.368753v1

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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

[email protected]: Email Address

Members

Ting-Hsiang (Richard) Huang
Postdoctoral Fellow

Lab Alumni

Scott J. Callahan
Vice President, Director of Medical Strategy at Havas Health & You, New York, NY

Emily Kansler
Senior Research Technician

Grant Robinson, BS — Grant Robinson
Graduate Student

Kelsey Temprine, BS — Kelsey R. Temprine
Graduate Student

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

Josie Robertson Investigator (2012-2017)
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

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

Postdoctoral position: Modeling metastasis in the zebrafish

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Postdoctoral position: Pigmentation in the zebrafish

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Get in Touch

[email protected]

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:

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, 2021 through disclosure submission in spring 2022). 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].

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