Bryan E. Welm

Bryan E. Welm, PhD

Languages spoken: English

Academic Information

Departments Adjunct - Oncological Sciences , Primary - Surgery

Divisions: General Surgery

Academic Office Information

bryan.welm@hci.utah.edu

Lab

Bryan Welm, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Utah, an investigator at the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), and a member of the Cell Response and Regulation Program.

Welm investigates the link between breast stem cells and breast cancer. The breast is a highly regenerative organ that undergoes many growth and functional changes during pregnancies. This regenerative capacity has been attributed to a rare stem cell population that can give rise to the many different cell types of the mammary gland. Studies provide evidence that breast stem cells may be the cells that cause breast cancer.

It is poorly understood how the mechanisms that drive changes and growth of stem cells become dysregulated in breast cancer. Welm's main research interest is to understand the cause of breast cancer by identifying the cellular origins for cancer and the initial transforming events within those cells.

Welm joined HCI after completing postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Zena Werb, PhD, at the University of California, San Francisco.

Education History

Undergraduate Diablo Valley College
Undergraduate University of California, Santa Cruz
 BA
Doctoral Training Baylor College of Medicine
 PhD
Postdoctoral Fellowship University of California, San Francisco
 Postdoctoral Fellow

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Polanco ER, Moustafa TE, Balcioglu O, Scherer SD, Cortes-Sanchez E, Remick S, Spike BT, Welm AL, Welm BE, Bernard PS, Zangle T (2025). Determination of Drug Sensitivity in Patient Derived Models of Breast Cancer by Multiparametric QPI. bioRxiv,
  2. Lei JT, Dobrolecki LE, Huang C, Srinivasan RR, Vasaikar SV, Lewis AN, Sallas C, Zhao N, Cao J, Landua JD, Moon CI, Liao Y, Hilsenbeck SG, Osborne CK, Rimawi MF, Ellis MJ, Petrosyan V, Wen B, Li K, Saltzman AB, Jain A, Malovannaya A, Wulf GM, Marangoni E, Li S, Kraushaar DC, Wang T, Damodaran S, Zheng X, Meric-Bernstam F, Echeverria GV, Anurag M, Chen X, Welm BE, Welm AL, Zhang B, Lewis M (2025). Patient-Derived Xenografts of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Enable Deconvolution and Prediction of Chemotherapy Responses. bioRxiv,
  3. Vaklavas C, Matsen CB, Chu Z, Boucher KM, Scherer SD, Pathi S, Beck A, Brownson KE, Buys SS, Chittoria N, D'Astous E, Gulbahce HE, Henry NL, Kimani S, Porretta J, Rosenthal R, Ward J, Wei M, Welm BE, Welm A (2024). TOWARDS Study: Patient-Derived Xenograft Engraftment Predicts Poor Survival in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. JCO precision oncology, 8, e2300724.
  4. White BS, Woo XY, Koc S, Sheridan T, Neuhauser SB, Wang S, Evrard YA, Chen L, Foroughi Pour A, Landua JD, Mashl RJ, Davies SR, Fang B, Raso MG, Evans KW, Bailey MH, Chen Y, Xiao M, Rubinstein JC, Sanderson BJ, Lloyd MW, Domanskyi S, Dobrolecki LE, Fujita M, Fujimoto J, Xiao G, Fields RC, Mudd JL, Xu X, Hollingshead MG, Jiwani S, Acevedo S, PDXNet Consortium, Davis-Dusenbery BN, Robinson PN, Moscow JA, Doroshow JH, Mitsiades N, Kaochar S, Pan CX, Carvajal-Carmona LG, Welm AL, Welm BE, Govindan R, Li S, Davies MA, Roth JA, Meric-Bernstam F, Xie Y, Herlyn M, Ding L, Lewis MT, Bult CJ, Dean DA 2nd, Chuang J (2024). A Pan-Cancer Patient-Derived Xenograft Histology Image Repository with Genomic and Pathologic Annotations Enables Deep Learning Analysis. Cancer research, 84(13), 2060-2072.
  5. Sederman C, Yang CH, Cortes-Sanchez E, Di Sera T, Huang X, Scherer SD, Zhao L, Chu Z, White ER, Atkinson A, Wagstaff J, Varley KE, Lewis MT, Qiao Y, Welm BE, Welm AL, Marth G (2024). A precision oncology-focused deep learning framework for personalized selection of cancer therapy. bioRxiv,
  6. Scherer SD, Zhao L, Butterfield AJ, Yang CH, Cortes-Sanchez E, Guillen KP, Welm BE, Welm A (2023). Breast cancer PDxO cultures for drug discovery and functional precision oncology. STAR protocols, 4(3), 102402.
  7. Wu Y, Chen S, Yang X, Sato K, Lal P, Wang Y, Shinkle AT, Wendl MC, Primeau TM, Zhao Y, Gould A, Sun H, Mudd JL, Hoog J, Mashl RJ, Wyczalkowski MA, Mo CK, Liu R, Herndon JM, Davies SR, Liu D, Ding X, Evrard YA, Welm BE, Lum D, Koh MY, Welm AL, Chuang JH, Moscow JA, Meric-Bernstam F, Govindan R, Li S, Hsieh J, Fields RC, Lim KH, Ma CX, Zhang H, Ding L, Chen (2023). Combining the Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Cabozantinib and the mTORC1/2 Inhibitor Sapanisertib Blocks ERK Pathway Activity and Suppresses Tumor Growth in Renal Cell Carcinoma. Cancer research, 83(24), 4161-4178.
  8. Polanco ER, Moustafa TE, Butterfield A, Scherer SD, Cortes-Sanchez E, Bodily T, Spike BT, Welm BE, Bernard PS, Zangle T (2022). Multiparametric quantitative phase imaging for real-time, single cell, drug screening in breast cancer. Communications biology, 5(1), 794.
  9. Petrosyan V, Dobrolecki LE, LaPlante EL, Srinivasan RR, Bailey MH, Welm AL, Welm BE, Lewis MT, Milosavljevic (2022). Immunologically "cold" triple negative breast cancers engraft at a higher rate in patient derived xenografts. NPJ breast cancer, 8(1), 104.
  10. Bose S, Barroso M, Chheda MG, Clevers H, Elez E, Kaochar S, Kopetz SE, Li XN, Meric-Bernstam F, Meyer CA, Mou H, Naegle KM, Pera MF, Perova Z, Politi KA, Raphael BJ, Robson P, Sears RC, Tabernero J, Tuveson DA, Welm AL, Welm BE, Willey CD, Salnikow K, Chuang JH, Shen (2022). A path to translation: How 3D patient tumor avatars enable next generation precision oncology. Cancer cell, 40(12), 1448-1453.
  11. Petrosyan V, Dobrolecki LE, Thistlethwaite L, Lewis AN, Sallas C, Srinivasan RR, Lei JT, Kovacevic V, Obradovic P, Ellis MJ, Osborne CK, Rimawi MF, Pavlick A, Shafaee MN, Dowst H, Jain A, Saltzman AB, Malovannaya A, Marangoni E, Welm AL, Welm BE, Li S, Wulf GM, Sonzogni O, Huang C, Vasaikar S, Hilsenbeck SG, Zhang B, Milosavljevic A, Lewis M (2022). Identifying biomarkers of differential chemotherapy response in TNBC patient-derived xenografts with a CTD/WGCNA approach. iScience, 26(1), 105799.
  12. Woo XY, Giordano J, Srivastava A, Zhao ZM, Lloyd MW, de Bruijn R, Suh YS, Patidar R, Chen L, Scherer S, Bailey MH, Yang CH, Cortes-Sanchez E, Xi Y, Wang J, Wickramasinghe J, Kossenkov AV, Rebecca VW, Sun H, Mashl RJ, Davies SR, Jeon R, Frech C, Randjelovic J, Rosains J, Galimi F, Bertotti A, Lafferty A, O'Farrell AC, Modave E, Lambrechts D, Ter Brugge P, Serra V, Marangoni E, El Botty R, Kim H, Kim JI, Yang HK, Lee C, Dean DA 2nd, Davis-Dusenbery B, Evrard YA, Doroshow JH, Welm AL, Welm BE, Lewis MT, Fang B, Roth JA, Meric-Bernstam F, Herlyn M, Davies MA, Ding L, Li S, Govindan R, Isella C, Moscow JA, Trusolino L, Byrne AT, Jonkers J, Bult CJ, Medico E, Chuang JH, PDXNET Consortium, EurOPDX Consortiu (2021). Conservation of copy number profiles during engraftment and passaging of patient-derived cancer xenografts. Nature genetics, 53(1), 86-99.
  13. Welm BE, Vaklavas C, Welm A (2021). Toward improved models of human cancer. APL bioengineering, 5(1), 010901.
  14. Feusier JE, Arunachalam S, Tashi T, Baker MJ, VanSant-Webb C, Ferdig A, Welm BE, Rodriguez-Flores JL, Ours C, Jorde LB, Prchal JT, Mason C (2021). Large-Scale Identification of Clonal Hematopoiesis and Mutations Recurrent in Blood Cancers. Blood cancer discovery, 2(3), 226-237.
  15. Sun H, Cao S, Mashl RJ, Mo CK, Zaccaria S, Wendl MC, Davies SR, Bailey MH, Primeau TM, Hoog J, Mudd JL, Dean DA 2nd, Patidar R, Chen L, Wyczalkowski MA, Jayasinghe RG, Rodrigues FM, Terekhanova NV, Li Y, Lim KH, Wang-Gillam A, Van Tine BA, Ma CX, Aft R, Fuh KC, Schwarz JK, Zevallos JP, Puram SV, Dipersio JF, NCI PDXNet Consortium, Davis-Dusenbery B, Ellis MJ, Lewis MT, Davies MA, Herlyn M, Fang B, Roth JA, Welm AL, Welm BE, Meric-Bernstam F, Chen F, Fields RC, Li S, Govindan R, Doroshow JH, Moscow JA, Evrard YA, Chuang JH, Raphael BJ, Ding (2021). Comprehensive characterization of 536 patient-derived xenograft models prioritizes candidatesfor targeted treatment. Nature communications, 12(1), 5086.
  16. Truong TH, Benner EA, Hagen KM, Temiz NA, Kerkvliet CP, Wang Y, Cortes-Sanchez E, Yang CH, Trousdell MC, Pengo T, Guillen KP, Welm BE, Dos Santos CO, Telang S, Lange CA, Ostrander J (2021). PELP1/SRC-3-dependent regulation of metabolic PFKFB kinases drives therapy resistant ER(+) breast cancer. Oncogene, 40(25), 4384-4397.
  17. Conway ME, McDaniel JM, Graham JM, Guillen KP, Oliver PG, Parker SL, Yue P, Turkson J, Buchsbaum DJ, Welm BE, Myers RM, Varley K (2020). STAT3 and GR cooperate to drive gene expression and growth of basal-like triple-negative breast cancer. Cancer research, 80(20), 4355-4370.
  18. Rodriguez AC, Vahrenkamp JM, Berrett KC, Clark KA, Guillen KP, Scherer SD, Yang CH, Welm BE, Janát-Amsbury MM, Graves BJ, Gertz (2020). ETV4 Is Necessary for Estrogen Signaling and Growth in Endometrial Cancer Cells. Cancer research, 80(6), 1234-1245.
  19. Wilde BR, Kaadige MR, Guillen KP, Butterfield A, Welm BE, Ayer D (2020). Protein synthesis inhibitors stimulate MondoA transcriptional activity by driving an accumulation of glucose 6-phosphate. Cancer & metabolism, 8(1), 27.
  20. Kinsey CG, Camolotto SA, Boespflug AM, Guillen KP, Foth M, Truong A, Schuman SS, Shea JE, Seipp MT, Yap JT, Burrell LD, Lum DH, Whisenant JR, Gilcrease GW 3rd, Cavalieri CC, Rehbein KM, Cutler SL, Affolter KE, Welm AL, Welm BE, Scaife CL, Snyder EL, McMahon (2019). Protective autophagy elicited by RAF'MEK'ERK inhibition suggests a treatment strategy for RAS-driven cancers. Nature medicine, 25(4), 620-627.
  21. Basham KJ, Kieffer C, Shelton DN, Leonard CJ, Bhonde VR, Vankayalapati H, Milash B, Bearss DJ, Looper RE, Welm B (2013). Chemical genetic screen reveals a role for desmosomal adhesion in mammary branching morphogenesis. The Journal of biological chemistry, 288(4), 2261-70.
  22. Gligorich KM, Vaden RM, Shelton DN, Wang G, Matsen CB, Looper RE, Sigman MS, Welm B (2013). Development of a screen to identify selective small molecules active against patient-derived metastatic and chemoresistant breast cancer cells. Breast cancer research, 15(4), R58.
  23. DeRose YS, Gligorich KM, Wang G, Georgelas A, Bowman P, Courdy SJ, Welm AL, Welm B (2013). Patient-derived models of human breast cancer: protocols for in vitro and in vivo applications in tumor biology and translational medicine. Current protocols in pharmacology, Chapter 14, Unit14.23.
  24. Liu J, Welm B, Boucher KM, Ebbert MT, Bernard PS (2012). TRIM29 functions as a tumor suppressor in nontumorigenic breast cells and invasive ER+ breast cancer. Am J Pathol, 180(2), 839-47.
  25. Pathak TP, Osiak JG, Vaden RM, Welm BE, Sigman M (2012). Synthesis and Preliminary Biological Study of Bisindolylmethanes Accessed by an Acid-Catalyzed Hydroarylation of Vinylindoles. Tetrahedron, 68(26), 5203-5208.
  26. Maddox J, Shakya A, South S, Shelton D, Andersen JN, Chidester S, Kang J, Gligorich KM, Jones DA, Spangrude GJ, Welm BE, Tantin (2012). Transcription factor Oct1 is a somatic and cancer stem cell determinant. PLoS genetics, 8(11), e1003048.
  27. Lum DH, Matsen C, Welm AL, Welm B (2012). Overview of human primary tumorgraft models: comparisons with traditional oncology preclinical models and the clinical relevance and utility of primary tumorgrafts in basic and translational oncology research. Current protocols in pharmacology, Chapter 14, Unit 14.22.
  28. Smith BA, Shelton DN, Kieffer C, Milash B, Usary J, Perou CM, Bernard PS, Welm B (2012). Targeting the PyMT Oncogene to Diverse Mammary Cell Populations Enhances Tumor Heterogeneity and Generates Rare Breast Cancer Subtypes. Genes & cancer, 3(9-10), 550-63.
  29. DeRose YS, Wang G, Lin YC, Bernard PS, Buys SS, Ebbert MT, Factor R, Matsen C, Milash BA, Nelson E, Neumayer L, Randall RL, Stijleman IJ, Welm BE, Welm A (2011). Tumor grafts derived from women with breast cancer authentically reflect tumor pathology, growth, metastasis and disease outcomes. Nature medicine, 17(11), 1514-20.
  30. Shelton DN, Fernandez-Gonzalez R, Illa-Bochaca I, Ortiz-de-Solorzano C, Barcellos-Hoff MH, Welm B (2010). Use of stem cell markers in dissociated mammary populations. Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), 621, 49-55.
  31. Pathak TP, Gligorich KM, Welm BE, Sigman M (2010). Synthesis and preliminary biological studies of 3-substituted indoles accessed by a palladium-catalyzed enantioselective alkene difunctionalization reaction. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 132(23), 7870-1.
  32. Fernandez-Gonzalez R, Illa-Bochaca I, Welm BE, Fleisch MC, Werb Z, Ortiz-de-Solorzano C, Barcellos-Hoff M (2009). Mapping mammary gland architecture using multi-scale in situ analysis. Integrative biology, 1(1), 80-9.
  33. Egeblad M, Ewald AJ, Askautrud HA, Truitt ML, Welm BE, Bainbridge E, Peeters G, Krummel MF, Werb (2008). Visualizing stromal cell dynamics in different tumor microenvironments by spinning disk confocal microscopy. Disease models & mechanisms, 1(2-3), 155-67; discussion 165.

Review

  1. Smith BA, Welm AL, Welm B (2012). On the shoulders of giants: a historical perspective of unique experimental methods in mammary gland research. Seminars in cell & developmental biology, 23(5), 583-90.

Case Report

  1. Guillen KP, Fujita M, Butterfield AJ, Scherer SD, Bailey MH, Chu Z, DeRose YS, Zhao L, Cortes-Sanchez E, Yang CH, Toner J, Wang G, Qiao Y, Huang X, Greenland JA, Vahrenkamp JM, Lum DH, Factor RE, Nelson EW, Matsen CB, Poretta JM, Rosenthal R, Beck AC, Buys SS, Vaklavas C, Ward JH, Jensen RL, Jones KB, Li Z, Oesterreich S, Dobrolecki LE, Pathi SS, Woo XY, Berrett KC, Wadsworth ME, Chuang JH, Lewis MT, Marth GT, Gertz J, Varley KE, Welm BE, Welm A (2022). A human breast cancer-derived xenograft and organoid platform for drug discovery and precision oncology. Nature cancer, 3(2), 232-250.

Other

  1. Kinsey CG, Camolotto SA, Boespflug AM, Guillen KP, Foth M, Truong A, Schuman SS, Shea JE, Seipp MT, Yap JT, Burrell LD, Lum DH, Whisenant JR, Gilcrease GW 3rd, Cavalieri CC, Rehbein KM, Cutler SL, Affolter KE, Welm AL, Welm BE, Scaife CL, Snyder EL, McMahon (2025). Author Correction: Protective autophagy elicited by RAF'MEK'ERK inhibition suggests a treatment strategy for RAS-driven cancers. Nature medicine, 31(6), 2069.
  2. Sun H, Cao S, Mashl RJ, Mo CK, Zaccaria S, Wendl MC, Davies SR, Bailey MH, Primeau TM, Hoog J, Mudd JL, Dean DA 2nd, Patidar R, Chen L, Wyczalkowski MA, Jayasinghe RG, Rodrigues FM, Terekhanova NV, Li Y, Lim KH, Wang-Gillam A, Van Tine BA, Ma CX, Aft R, Fuh KC, Schwarz JK, Zevallos JP, Puram SV, Dipersio JF, NCI PDXNet Consortium, Davis-Dusenbery B, Ellis MJ, Lewis MT, Davies MA, Herlyn M, Fang B, Roth JA, Welm AL, Welm BE, Meric-Bernstam F, Chen F, Fields RC, Li S, Govindan R, Doroshow JH, Moscow JA, Evrard YA, Chuang JH, Raphael BJ, Ding (2022). Author Correction: Comprehensive characterization of 536 patient-derived xenograft models prioritizes candidates for targeted treatment. Nature communications, 13(1), 294.
  3. Woo XY, Giordano J, Srivastava A, Zhao ZM, Lloyd MW, de Bruijn R, Suh YS, Patidar R, Chen L, Scherer S, Bailey MH, Yang CH, Cortes-Sanchez E, Xi Y, Wang J, Wickramasinghe J, Kossenkov AV, Rebecca VW, Sun H, Mashl RJ, Davies SR, Jeon R, Frech C, Randjelovic J, Rosains J, Galimi F, Bertotti A, Lafferty A, O'Farrell AC, Modave E, Lambrechts D, Ter Brugge P, Serra V, Marangoni E, El Botty R, Kim H, Kim JI, Yang HK, Lee C, Dean DA 2nd, Davis-Dusenbery B, Evrard YA, Doroshow JH, Welm AL, Welm BE, Lewis MT, Fang B, Roth JA, Meric-Bernstam F, Herlyn M, Davies MA, Ding L, Li S, Govindan R, Isella C, Moscow JA, Trusolino L, Byrne AT, Jonkers J, Bult CJ, Medico E, Chuang JH, PDXNET Consortium, EurOPDX Consortiu (2021). Author Correction: Conservation of copy number profiles during engraftment and passaging of patient-derived cancer xenografts. Nature genetics, 53(5), 761.
  4. Welm BE, Vaklavas C, Welm A (2021). Erratum: "Toward improved models of human cancer" [APL Bioeng. 5, 010901 (2021)]. APL bioengineering, 5(2), 029901.
  5. Kinsey CG, Camolotto SA, Boespflug AM, Guillen KP, Foth M, Truong A, Schuman SS, Shea JE, Seipp MT, Yap JT, Burrell LD, Lum DH, Whisenant JR, Gilcrease GW 3rd, Cavalieri CC, Rehbein KM, Cutler SL, Affolter KE, Welm AL, Welm BE, Scaife CL, Snyder EL, McMahon (2019). Publisher Correction: Protective autophagy elicited by RAF'MEK'ERK inhibition suggests a treatment strategy for RAS-driven cancers. Nature medicine, 25(5), 861.

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