Jane Visvader

Jane Visvader has mapped the mammary epithelial stem cell hierarchy and demonstrated how Notch signaling maintains stemness in breast cancer, identifying that BRCA1-mutant breast cancers arise from luminal progenitor cells with aberrant Notch activation. Her lineage tracing studies in mice revealed that distinct mammary stem and progenitor populations give rise to different breast cancer subtypes. She has shown that Notch pathway inhibition depletes breast cancer stem cells and sensitizes tumors to chemotherapy. Her work connects normal mammary development with breast cancer stem cell biology and therapeutic targeting.