Bryan E. Welm

Bryan E. Welm, PhD

Languages spoken: English

Academic Information

Departments Adjunct - Oncological Sciences , Primary - Surgery

Divisions: General Surgery

Lab

Bryan Welm, PhD, is an assistant 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. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.

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.

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