Kornelia Polyak
科内利亚·波利亚克
MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Senior Scientist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute哈佛医学院医学教授；丹娜-法伯癌症研究所高级科学家
👥Biography 个人简介
Kornelia Polyak, MD PhD at Dana-Farber/Harvard is a world authority on breast cancer heterogeneity, CSC markers, and clonal evolution. Her lab dissects the cellular and molecular diversity within breast tumors, characterizes CSC populations using markers such as CD44/CD24/ALDH1, and investigates how tumor-stromal interactions and clonal dynamics drive breast cancer progression from in situ to invasive disease.
🧪Research Fields 研究领域
🎓Key Contributions 主要贡献
Breast Cancer Heterogeneity and CSC Subpopulations
Used single-cell genomics and flow cytometry to demonstrate that breast tumors contain functionally distinct subpopulations with varying tumor-initiating capacities, and showed that CD44+/ALDH1+ cells are enriched for CSC activity and metastatic potential.
Clonal Evolution in Breast Cancer
Applied whole-genome sequencing of single cells and microdissected tumor regions to reconstruct clonal evolutionary trees in breast cancer, revealing parallel evolution, convergent mutations, and non-linear branching patterns.
DCIS to Invasive Breast Cancer Transition
Investigated the cellular and microenvironmental determinants of progression from ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) to invasive breast cancer, identifying myoepithelial cell dysfunction and immune infiltration as key determinants of invasion.
Representative Works 代表性著作
A cancer cell program promotes T cell exclusion and resistance to checkpoint blockade
Cell (2019)
Identified a cancer cell-intrinsic program that drives immunosuppression in breast tumors by excluding T cells, linking CSC states to immune evasion.
Functional and genetic analysis of chromatin accessibility identifies breast cancer vulnerability
Nature Genetics (2018)
Combined ATAC-seq and scRNA-seq to map chromatin accessibility in breast CSC subpopulations, identifying epigenetic vulnerabilities specific to tumor-initiating cells.
Clonal evolution in breast cancer revealed by single nucleus genome sequencing
Nature (2014)
Used single-nucleus sequencing to reconstruct clonal architecture and evolutionary dynamics within individual breast tumors, revealing complex branching evolution.
🏆Awards & Recognition 奖项与荣誉
📄Data Sources 数据来源
Last updated: 2026-01-15 | All information from publicly available academic sources
Related Experts 相关专家
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UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
Drew M. Pardoll
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Padmanee Sharma
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Naiyer A. Rizvi
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