Payton Stevens

Education

Ph.D. University of Kentucky (2018)

Biographical Information

The rapid metastasis of pancreatic cancer (when tumors spread to other parts of the body) and why this process occurs are among my primary interests as a cancer cell biologist. At diagnosis, approximately 90% of individuals with pancreatic cancer have metastatic tumors, resulting in a short life expectancy. My goal is to understand how the Wnt signaling pathway contributes to the metastatic process and more specifically cancer cell motility, or movement at the single-cell level. In this context Wnt signaling serves as a director for cell processes, cueing cancer cells to migrate away from their origin (the pancreas) and invade distant sites such as the liver. The Wnt pathway consists of many different molecules, and my laboratory uses molecular biology and genome editing techniques to understand the individual contributions of these various molecules to pancreatic cancer motility. By identifying the roles and contributions for each individual “director”, we hope to identify potential therapeutics to stop the progression of metastatic disease for pancreatic cancer patients.

Selected Publications

• Stevens PD, Williams BO. (2021) LGR4: Not Just for Wnt Anymore? Cancer Research 81(17):4397-4398.
• Zhong ZA, Michalski MN, Stevens PD, Sall EA, Williams BO. (2021) Regulation of Wnt receptor activity: Implications for therapeutic development in colon cancer. J Biol Chem. 296:100782.
• Gan T, Stevens AT, Xiong X, Wen YA, Farmer TN, Li AT, Stevens PD, Golshani S, Weiss HL, Evers BM, Gao T. (2020) Inhibition of protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type F suppresses Wnt signaling in colorectal cancer. Oncogene 39(44):6789-6801.
• Jang H, Stevens PD, Gao T & Galperin E. (2020) The leucine‐rich repeat signaling scaffolds Shoc2 and Erbin: cellular mechanism and role in disease. FEBS J. 288, 721–739.
• Stevens PD, Wen Y, Xiong X, Zaytseva Y, Li A, Wang C, Stevens A, Farmer T, Gan T, Weiss HL, Inagaki M, Marchetto S, Borg JP, Gao T (2018) Erbin suppresses KSR1-mediated RAS/RAF signaling and tumorigenesis in colorectal cancer. Cancer Research 78(17):4839-52.
• Smith AJ, Wen YA, Stevens PD, Liu J, Wang C, Gao T. (2016) PHLPP negatively regulates cell motility through inhibition of Akt activity and integrin expression in pancreatic cancer cells. Oncotarget 7 (7), 7801.
• Li X, Stevens PD, Liu J, Yang H, Wang W, Wang C, Zeng Z, Schmidt MD, Yang M, Lee EY, Gao T. (2014) PHLPP is a negative regulator of RAF1, which reduces colorectal cancer cell motility and prevents tumor progression in mice. Gastroenterology 146(5):1301-12 e1-10.
• Li X, Stevens PD, Yang H, Gulhati P, Wang W, Evers BM, Gao T. (2013) The deubiquitination enzyme USP46 functions as a tumor suppressor by controlling PHLPP-dependent attenuation of Akt signaling in colon cancer. Oncogene 32(4):471-8.
• Liu J, Stevens PD, Li X, Schmidt MD, Gao T. (2011) PHLPP-mediated dephosphorylation of S6K1 inhibits protein translation and cell growth. Molecular and cellular biology 31(24):4917-27.
• Gulhati P, Bowen KA, Liu J, Stevens PD, Rychahou PG, Chen M, Lee EY, Weiss HL, O'Connor KL, Gao T, Evers BM. (2011) mTORC1 and mTORC2 regulate EMT, motility, and metastasis of colorectal cancer via RhoA and Rac1 signaling pathways. Cancer research 71(9):3246-56.

Courses Taught

• BIO171/172      Human Anatomy and Physiology
• BIO203             Introduction to Cell Biology
• MBI 161            Elementary Medical Microbiology Laboratory