Christine Chaffer

Christine Chaffer has elucidated how epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity enables cancer cells to reversibly switch between epithelial and mesenchymal states during the metastatic cascade, with EMT promoting invasion and dissemination while MET (mesenchymal-epithelial transition) enables proliferative colonization at distant sites. Her work demonstrated that cells in partial or hybrid EMT states possess the greatest metastatic capacity by combining migratory and proliferative properties. She has characterized the epigenetic mechanisms controlling EMT plasticity through ZEB1 and chromatin remodeling. Her discoveries have revealed that targeting EMT plasticity rather than fixed cell states may be required to prevent metastasis.