Dr. Sendurai A. Mani, PhD
Professor Department of Translational Molecular Pathology MD Anderson Cancer Centre Houston, Texas , USA
Sendurai A. Mani is a Professor in the Department of Translational Molecular Pathology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is also the co-director of the Metastasis Research Center and the Center for Stem Cell and Developmental Biology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Dr. Mani received his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Science with Prof. G. Padmanabhan. He then trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Whitehead Institute as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Robert Weinberg. Dr. Mani was the first to demonstrate that cancer cells acquire stem cell properties by activating the latent embryonic epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program. This finding provided the foundation and explanation for the presence of plasticity within the tumor and the development of metastasis and resistance to various treatments. Dr. Mani’s laboratory investigates the biology and the contribution of EMT and the cancer stem cells in developing metastasis and chemoresistance. His team is finding ways to diagnose and treat cancer metastasis and treatment resistance using the precision oncology approach.
Dr. Mani has received numerous prizes and awards for his research, including a Jimmy V foundation’s V-Scholar Award and The American Cancer Society Research Scholar award. He has recently been elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS).
“For the first time, our research work linked two highly studied and seemly important processes during cancer progression- EMT and cancer stem cells(CSC). Previously, these ideas were believed to be completely independent processes”.