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Jonathan Chernoff, MD, PhD

About

Senior Vice President

Deputy Director

Chief Scientific Officer

Stanley P. Reimann Chair in Oncology Research

Co-Leader, Cancer Biology

Research Program

Lab Overview

The process of neoplastic transformation can be conceptually divided into two components. The first of these, proliferative transformation, refers to the ability of transformed cells to bypass growth suppression signals, surviving and dividing when normal cells would not. The second, morphologic transformation, refers to loss of normal cytoskeletal architecture, often accompanied by decreased adhesion and acquisition of the ability to invade surrounding tissues. These two fundamental properties are intimately linked to one another, although experimentally they can be dissected apart through the use of gain-of-function and loss-of-function manipulation of signaling molecules. The overall focus this research is in uncovering the roles of key protein kinases that govern these two fundamental aspects of cancer biology. 

 
Blocking Pak function restores normal development in Rac1P29S zebrafish. Embryos were injected with Phenol red or Phenol red + RAC1P29S mRNA during the one-cell stage. 1 μM inhibitors were added at 4 hpf, then removed after 1 h. Embryonic morphology was scored at 24 hpf. (a) Representative images of developmental abnormalities. (b) Embryo phenotypes were scored as normal if they presented an elongated body axis, eye and heart development.
Role of Pakl1 in EMT in colorectal cancer epithelia
Hippo pathway regulation: Role of Mst homo- and heterodimers. In their homodimeric form, Mst1 and Mst2 are highly active and promote cell cycle delay, apoptosis, and tumor suppression. Mst1 and Mst2 can also heterodimerize with additional proteins, some of which containing SARAH domains (WW45, Rassf; SARAH domain indicated by extension from rectangle), and some which do not (c-Raf, Abl, Pdx1, and mTORC2 (via Rictor). Such heterodimers are inactive, and the Hippo pathway is suppressed.

As Deputy Director and Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Chernoff coordinates and charts the future course of research at Fox Chase.

Chernoff joined the staff in 1991 as an associate member and was promoted to member with tenure in 1996. In 2002 he was promoted to be a senior member in Fox Chase Cancer Center's Basic Science division, the equivalent of a full professor in a university.

A molecular oncologist as well as a board-certified medical oncologist, Chernoff has a special interest in factors that control cell growth and movement, including oncogenes and anticancer or tumor-suppressor genes, and has made fundamental contributions in this research.

Chernoff earned his MD and his PhD in biochemistry in 1984 at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University Health Center of Pittsburgh and a clinical fellowship in medical oncology at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. He then held a postdoctoral fellowship in cellular and developmental biology at Harvard University before coming to Fox Chase.

In recognition of his national reputation in molecular oncology and biochemistry, Chernoff also holds the Stanley P. Reimann Chair in Oncology.

Education and Training

Educational Background

  • PhD, Biochemistry, Mt. Sinai School of Medcine, New York, NY, 1984
  • MD, Biochemistry, Mt. Sinai School of Medcine, New York, NY, 1984
  • BA, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale College, New Haven, CT, 1978

Honors & Awards

  • Faculty of 1000 (2007-present)
  • Stanley P. Reimann Chair in Oncology research (2008-present)
  • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2017)
  • AACR, Educational Session Leader (2014)
  • Pennsylvania Drug Discovery Institute, Drug Discovery Award (2013)
  • Senior Fellow, American Asthma Assn (2008-2011)
  • Chair: NF2 Preclinical Consortium (2011-2012)
  • American Cancer Society, Southeast PA division, Scientific Research Award (2010)
  • Vice-Chair, FASEB “Small GTPases” (2008)
  • Chair, GRC “Mechanisms of Cell Signaling (2007)
  • Dozor Lecturer, Ben-Gurion University, Israel (2007)
  • Leukemia Society of America Scholar Award, (1997-2002)
  • ACS Research Scholar (1993-1998)
  • W.W. Smith Charitable Trust Fellowship 1993-1996
  • Pfizer Traveling Fellow (1996)
  • B.S. cum laude, Yale University (1978)
Research Profile

Research Program

Research Interests

  • Rac1 signaling in malignant melanoma
  • Regulation and role of p21-activated kinases in cancer
  • Hippo tumor suppressor pathway
  • Kras isoform-specific signaling

Lab Overview

The process of neoplastic transformation can be conceptually divided into two components. The first of these, proliferative transformation, refers to the ability of transformed cells to bypass growth suppression signals, suriviving and dividing when normal cells would not. The second, morphologic transformation, refers to loss of normal cytoskeletal architecture, often accompanied by decreased adhesion and acquisition of the ability to invade surrounding tissues. These two fundamental properties are intimately linked to one another, although experimentally they can be dissected apart through the use of gain-of-function and loss-of-function manupulation of signaling molecules. The overall focus this research is in uncovering the roles of protein phosphorylation in governing these two fundamental aspects of cancer biology. 

Lab Staff

Hoi Yee (Betty) Chow, PhD

Visiting Scientist

Room: W451
215-728-5320
Hoiyee.Chow@fccc.edu

Cristina Uribe-Alvarez, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate

Room: W450
215-728-5320
Cristina.Uribe-Alvarez@fccc.edu

Gleb Abalakov, MD

Scientific Associate

Room: W450
215-728-5320
Gleb.Abalakov@fccc.edu

Dorothy Benton, BS

Graduate Student, Drexel University College of Medicine

Room: W450
215-728-5320
Dorothy.Benton@fccc.edu

Konstantin Budagyan, BS

Graduate Student, Drexel University College of Medicine

Room: W451
215-728-5320
Konstantin.Budagyan@fccc.edu

Alexa Cannon, BS

Graduate Student, Drexel University College of Medicine

Room: W450
215-728-5320
Alexa.Cannon@fccc.edu

Sofiia Karchugina

Graduate Student, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University

Room: W451
215-728-5320
Sofiia.Karchugina@fccc.edu

Anne Carson

Senior Administrative Assistant to Jonathan Chernoff, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer

Room: W455
215-728-2179
Anne.Carson@fccc.edu
Publications

Selected Publications

Binder P., Wang S., Radu M., Zin M., Collins L., Khan S., Li Y., Sekeres K., Humphreys N., Swanton E., Reid A., Pu F., Oceandy D., Guan K., Hille S.S., Frey N., Muller O.J., Cartwright E.J., Chernoff J., Liu W., Wang X., Pak2 as a novel therapeutic target for cardioprotective endoplasmic reticulum stress response. Circ Res. 124(5): 696-711, 2019.PMC6407830. 15.862

Chernoff J., How much is my paper worth? Mol Biol Cell. 30(23): 2878-2879, 2019. PMC6822591. 3.905

Kurimchak A.M., Shelton C., Herrera-Montavez C., Duncan K.E., Chernoff J., Duncan J.S., Intrinsic resistance to mek inhibition through bet protein mediated kinome reprogramming in nf1-deficient ovarian cancer. Mol Cancer Res. 17(8): 1721-1734, 2019. PMC6679760. 4.484

Lu H., Liu S., Zhang G., Wu B., Zhu Y., Frederick D.T., Hu Y., Zhong W., Randell S., Sadek N., Zhang W., Chen G., Cheng C., Zeng J., Wu L.W., Zhang J., Liu X., Xu W., Krepler C., Sproesser K., Xiao M., Miao B., Liu J., Song C.D., Liu J.Y., Karakousis G.C., Schuchter L.M., Lu Y., Mills G., Cong Y., Chernoff J., Guo J., Boland G.M., Sullivan R.J., Wei Z., Field J., Amaravadi R.K., Flaherty K.T., Herlyn M., Xu X. ,Guo W., Author correction: Pak signalling drives acquired drug resistance to mapk inhibitors in braf-mutant melanomas. Nature. 565(7738): E4, 2019. 43.070

Sannai M., Doneddu V., Giri V., Seeholzer S., Nicolas E., Yip S.C., Bassi M.R., Mancuso P., Cortellino S., Cigliano A., Lurie R., Ding H., Chernoff J., Sobol R.W., Yen T.J., Bagella L., Bellacosa A., Modification of the base excision repair enzyme mbd4 by the small ubiquitin-like molecule sumo1. DNA Repair. 82: 102687, 2019.PMC6785017. 3.711

Araiza-Olivera D. ,Chernoff J., Hras helps hippo heterodimerize to evade tumor suppression. Small GTPases. 9(4): 327-331, 2018. PMC5997136. 

Chow HY, Dong B, Valencia CA, Zeng CT, Koch JN, Prudnikova TY, Chernoff J. Group I Paks are essential for epithelial- mesenchymal transition in an Apc-driven model of colorectal cancer. Nature communications, 9(1):3473, 2018. PMC6110733

Karchugina S., Chernoff J., Detection of heterodimerization of protein isoforms using an in situ proximity ligation assay. J Vis Exp, (140)2018. PMC6235567. 1.108

Kim S.M., Nguyen T.T., Ravi A., Kubiniok P., Finicle B.T., Jayashankar V., Malacrida L., Hou J., Robertson J., Gao D., Chernoff J., Digman M.A., Potma E.O., Tromberg B.J., Thibault P.,Edinger A.L., Pten deficiency and ampk activation promote nutrient scavenging and anabolism in prostate cancer cells. Cancer Discov. 8(7): 866-883, 2018. PMC6030497. 26.370

Stepanova D.S., Braun L., Chernoff J., A new concept in nf2 pharmacotherapy: Targeting fatty acid synthesis. Oncoscience. 5(5-6): 126-127, 2018. PMC6049319.

Prudnikova T.Y., Chernoff J., The group i pak inhibitor frax-1036 sensitizes 11q13-amplified ovarian cancer cells to the cytotoxic effects of rottlerin. Small GTPases. 8(4): 193-198, 2017. PMC5680705. 2.048

Semenova G., Chernoff J., Targeting pak1. Biochem Soc Trans. 45(1): 79-88, 2017. PMC5973817. 4.291

Semenova G., Stepanova D., Deyev S.M., Chernoff J., Medium throughput biochemical compound screening identifies novel agents for pharmacotherapy of neurofibromatosis type i. Biochimie. 135: 1-5, 2017. PMC5405558. 3.362

Araiza-Olivera D, Feng Y, Semenova G, Prudnikova TY, Rhodes J, Chernoff J. Suppression of RAC1-driven malignant melanoma by group A PAK inhibitors. Oncogene, 37(7):944-52, 2018. PMC5814328

Semenova G, Stepanova DS, Dubyk C, Handorf E, Deyev SM, Lazar AJ, Chernoff J. Targeting group I p21-activated kinases to control malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor growth and metastasis. Oncogene, 36(38):5421-31, 2017. PMC5608634 ... Expand

Additional Publications

My NCBI

Contact Information

Jonathan.Chernoff@fccc.edu
Office Phone: 215-728-5319
Lab Phone: 215-728-5320
Fax: 215-728-3616
Office: W455
Lab: W422, W450-451

Senior Vice President

Deputy Director

Chief Scientific Officer

Stanley P. Reimann Chair in Oncology Research

Co-Leader, Cancer Biology

Research Program

Lab Overview

The process of neoplastic transformation can be conceptually divided into two components. The first of these, proliferative transformation, refers to the ability of transformed cells to bypass growth suppression signals, surviving and dividing when normal cells would not. The second, morphologic transformation, refers to loss of normal cytoskeletal architecture, often accompanied by decreased adhesion and acquisition of the ability to invade surrounding tissues. These two fundamental properties are intimately linked to one another, although experimentally they can be dissected apart through the use of gain-of-function and loss-of-function manipulation of signaling molecules. The overall focus this research is in uncovering the roles of key protein kinases that govern these two fundamental aspects of cancer biology. 

 
Blocking Pak function restores normal development in Rac1P29S zebrafish. Embryos were injected with Phenol red or Phenol red + RAC1P29S mRNA during the one-cell stage. 1 μM inhibitors were added at 4 hpf, then removed after 1 h. Embryonic morphology was scored at 24 hpf. (a) Representative images of developmental abnormalities. (b) Embryo phenotypes were scored as normal if they presented an elongated body axis, eye and heart development.
Role of Pakl1 in EMT in colorectal cancer epithelia
Hippo pathway regulation: Role of Mst homo- and heterodimers. In their homodimeric form, Mst1 and Mst2 are highly active and promote cell cycle delay, apoptosis, and tumor suppression. Mst1 and Mst2 can also heterodimerize with additional proteins, some of which containing SARAH domains (WW45, Rassf; SARAH domain indicated by extension from rectangle), and some which do not (c-Raf, Abl, Pdx1, and mTORC2 (via Rictor). Such heterodimers are inactive, and the Hippo pathway is suppressed.

As Deputy Director and Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Chernoff coordinates and charts the future course of research at Fox Chase.

Chernoff joined the staff in 1991 as an associate member and was promoted to member with tenure in 1996. In 2002 he was promoted to be a senior member in Fox Chase Cancer Center's Basic Science division, the equivalent of a full professor in a university.

A molecular oncologist as well as a board-certified medical oncologist, Chernoff has a special interest in factors that control cell growth and movement, including oncogenes and anticancer or tumor-suppressor genes, and has made fundamental contributions in this research.

Chernoff earned his MD and his PhD in biochemistry in 1984 at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University Health Center of Pittsburgh and a clinical fellowship in medical oncology at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. He then held a postdoctoral fellowship in cellular and developmental biology at Harvard University before coming to Fox Chase.

In recognition of his national reputation in molecular oncology and biochemistry, Chernoff also holds the Stanley P. Reimann Chair in Oncology.

Education

Educational Background

  • PhD, Biochemistry, Mt. Sinai School of Medcine, New York, NY, 1984
  • MD, Biochemistry, Mt. Sinai School of Medcine, New York, NY, 1984
  • BA, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale College, New Haven, CT, 1978

Honors & Awards

  • Faculty of 1000 (2007-present)
  • Stanley P. Reimann Chair in Oncology research (2008-present)
  • Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2017)
  • AACR, Educational Session Leader (2014)
  • Pennsylvania Drug Discovery Institute, Drug Discovery Award (2013)
  • Senior Fellow, American Asthma Assn (2008-2011)
  • Chair: NF2 Preclinical Consortium (2011-2012)
  • American Cancer Society, Southeast PA division, Scientific Research Award (2010)
  • Vice-Chair, FASEB “Small GTPases” (2008)
  • Chair, GRC “Mechanisms of Cell Signaling (2007)
  • Dozor Lecturer, Ben-Gurion University, Israel (2007)
  • Leukemia Society of America Scholar Award, (1997-2002)
  • ACS Research Scholar (1993-1998)
  • W.W. Smith Charitable Trust Fellowship 1993-1996
  • Pfizer Traveling Fellow (1996)
  • B.S. cum laude, Yale University (1978)

Research Profile

Research Interests

  • Rac1 signaling in malignant melanoma
  • Regulation and role of p21-activated kinases in cancer
  • Hippo tumor suppressor pathway
  • Kras isoform-specific signaling

Lab Overview

The process of neoplastic transformation can be conceptually divided into two components. The first of these, proliferative transformation, refers to the ability of transformed cells to bypass growth suppression signals, suriviving and dividing when normal cells would not. The second, morphologic transformation, refers to loss of normal cytoskeletal architecture, often accompanied by decreased adhesion and acquisition of the ability to invade surrounding tissues. These two fundamental properties are intimately linked to one another, although experimentally they can be dissected apart through the use of gain-of-function and loss-of-function manupulation of signaling molecules. The overall focus this research is in uncovering the roles of protein phosphorylation in governing these two fundamental aspects of cancer biology. 

Lab Staff

Hoi Yee (Betty) Chow, PhD

Visiting Scientist

Room: W451
215-728-5320
Hoiyee.Chow@fccc.edu

Cristina Uribe-Alvarez, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate

Room: W450
215-728-5320
Cristina.Uribe-Alvarez@fccc.edu

Gleb Abalakov, MD

Scientific Associate

Room: W450
215-728-5320
Gleb.Abalakov@fccc.edu

Dorothy Benton, BS

Graduate Student, Drexel University College of Medicine

Room: W450
215-728-5320
Dorothy.Benton@fccc.edu

Konstantin Budagyan, BS

Graduate Student, Drexel University College of Medicine

Room: W451
215-728-5320
Konstantin.Budagyan@fccc.edu

Alexa Cannon, BS

Graduate Student, Drexel University College of Medicine

Room: W450
215-728-5320
Alexa.Cannon@fccc.edu

Sofiia Karchugina

Graduate Student, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University

Room: W451
215-728-5320
Sofiia.Karchugina@fccc.edu

Anne Carson

Senior Administrative Assistant to Jonathan Chernoff, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer

Room: W455
215-728-2179
Anne.Carson@fccc.edu

Publications

Selected Publications

Binder P., Wang S., Radu M., Zin M., Collins L., Khan S., Li Y., Sekeres K., Humphreys N., Swanton E., Reid A., Pu F., Oceandy D., Guan K., Hille S.S., Frey N., Muller O.J., Cartwright E.J., Chernoff J., Liu W., Wang X., Pak2 as a novel therapeutic target for cardioprotective endoplasmic reticulum stress response. Circ Res. 124(5): 696-711, 2019.PMC6407830. 15.862

Chernoff J., How much is my paper worth? Mol Biol Cell. 30(23): 2878-2879, 2019. PMC6822591. 3.905

Kurimchak A.M., Shelton C., Herrera-Montavez C., Duncan K.E., Chernoff J., Duncan J.S., Intrinsic resistance to mek inhibition through bet protein mediated kinome reprogramming in nf1-deficient ovarian cancer. Mol Cancer Res. 17(8): 1721-1734, 2019. PMC6679760. 4.484

Lu H., Liu S., Zhang G., Wu B., Zhu Y., Frederick D.T., Hu Y., Zhong W., Randell S., Sadek N., Zhang W., Chen G., Cheng C., Zeng J., Wu L.W., Zhang J., Liu X., Xu W., Krepler C., Sproesser K., Xiao M., Miao B., Liu J., Song C.D., Liu J.Y., Karakousis G.C., Schuchter L.M., Lu Y., Mills G., Cong Y., Chernoff J., Guo J., Boland G.M., Sullivan R.J., Wei Z., Field J., Amaravadi R.K., Flaherty K.T., Herlyn M., Xu X. ,Guo W., Author correction: Pak signalling drives acquired drug resistance to mapk inhibitors in braf-mutant melanomas. Nature. 565(7738): E4, 2019. 43.070

Sannai M., Doneddu V., Giri V., Seeholzer S., Nicolas E., Yip S.C., Bassi M.R., Mancuso P., Cortellino S., Cigliano A., Lurie R., Ding H., Chernoff J., Sobol R.W., Yen T.J., Bagella L., Bellacosa A., Modification of the base excision repair enzyme mbd4 by the small ubiquitin-like molecule sumo1. DNA Repair. 82: 102687, 2019.PMC6785017. 3.711

Araiza-Olivera D. ,Chernoff J., Hras helps hippo heterodimerize to evade tumor suppression. Small GTPases. 9(4): 327-331, 2018. PMC5997136. 

Chow HY, Dong B, Valencia CA, Zeng CT, Koch JN, Prudnikova TY, Chernoff J. Group I Paks are essential for epithelial- mesenchymal transition in an Apc-driven model of colorectal cancer. Nature communications, 9(1):3473, 2018. PMC6110733

Karchugina S., Chernoff J., Detection of heterodimerization of protein isoforms using an in situ proximity ligation assay. J Vis Exp, (140)2018. PMC6235567. 1.108

Kim S.M., Nguyen T.T., Ravi A., Kubiniok P., Finicle B.T., Jayashankar V., Malacrida L., Hou J., Robertson J., Gao D., Chernoff J., Digman M.A., Potma E.O., Tromberg B.J., Thibault P.,Edinger A.L., Pten deficiency and ampk activation promote nutrient scavenging and anabolism in prostate cancer cells. Cancer Discov. 8(7): 866-883, 2018. PMC6030497. 26.370

Stepanova D.S., Braun L., Chernoff J., A new concept in nf2 pharmacotherapy: Targeting fatty acid synthesis. Oncoscience. 5(5-6): 126-127, 2018. PMC6049319.

Prudnikova T.Y., Chernoff J., The group i pak inhibitor frax-1036 sensitizes 11q13-amplified ovarian cancer cells to the cytotoxic effects of rottlerin. Small GTPases. 8(4): 193-198, 2017. PMC5680705. 2.048

Semenova G., Chernoff J., Targeting pak1. Biochem Soc Trans. 45(1): 79-88, 2017. PMC5973817. 4.291

Semenova G., Stepanova D., Deyev S.M., Chernoff J., Medium throughput biochemical compound screening identifies novel agents for pharmacotherapy of neurofibromatosis type i. Biochimie. 135: 1-5, 2017. PMC5405558. 3.362

Araiza-Olivera D, Feng Y, Semenova G, Prudnikova TY, Rhodes J, Chernoff J. Suppression of RAC1-driven malignant melanoma by group A PAK inhibitors. Oncogene, 37(7):944-52, 2018. PMC5814328

Semenova G, Stepanova DS, Dubyk C, Handorf E, Deyev SM, Lazar AJ, Chernoff J. Targeting group I p21-activated kinases to control malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor growth and metastasis. Oncogene, 36(38):5421-31, 2017. PMC5608634 ... Expand

Additional Publications

My NCBI

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