Michelle C. Mendoza, PhD

Dr. Mendoza received her B.S. (Highest Honors) in Animal Bioscience from Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania in 2000. She conducted her graduate work at the University of California, San Diego with Dr. Richard A. Firtel, studying signal transduction and cell migration using the model organism Dictyostelium discoidem. She received her PhD in Biomedical Science from UCSD in 2005. She then carried out postdoctoral training with cancer cell signaling expert Dr. John Blenis (funding from Susan G. Komen) and computer vision pioneer Dr. Gaudenz Danuser (K01 funding from the NCI) in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. She studied the molecular signals that control the actin cytoskeleton during cell movement. In 2013, Dr. Mendoza started her independent research program at the University of California, San Francisco, in the Department of Cell and Tissue Biology. In 2015, Dr. Mendoza moved her lab to join the faculty of the Department of Oncological Sciences, within the University of Utah, School of Medicine and the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Here, she expanded her research program to address the progression and invasion of early lung tumors. She is currently Associate Professor in Oncological Sciences, with tenure. She is Adjunct faculty in the Department of Bioengineering and a member of the Huntsman Cancer Institute’s Cell Response and Regulation (CRR) Program and Lung Cancer Center.

Research: The Mendoza lab mission is to help patients with lung cancer and other solid tumors through the discovery of fundamental mechanisms of cancer progression. The lab studies the biochemical and mechanical signaling of cell migration and lung cancer progression. The lab utilizes biochemistry, quantitative imaging, mouse models, and computational modeling to address: 1) cytoskeletal dynamics during motility: How do signaling pathways, such as the oncogenic RAS/ERK pathway, control the cytoskeletal dynamics that make cells move? 2) early tumor progression: How do changes in extracellular matrix and physical properties of the lung contribute to early tumor invasion and dissemination? 3) environmental exposures: How does the lung's response to environmental exposures impact lung cancer cell invasion? The Mendoza lab is funded by 3 R01's from the National Institutes of Health to carry-out this research.

Current Administrative Positions: co-Chair, Huntsman Cancer Institute Seminar Series. Member, Oncological Sciences Seminar Series Committees, University of Utah Cell Imaging Core Oversight Committee, Leadership in Academic Culture and Education (LACE) Committee within the School of Medicine.
Teaching: Dr. Mendoza teaches and examines the first year Molecular Biology graduate students. She also teaches Cancer Invasion and Metastasis in the Department of Oncological Sciences Cancer Biology course and Ethical Quantitative Imaging Approaches in the Medical School’s Light Microscopy and Digital Imaging Course. She is mentors postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, and undergraduate student carrying out senior thesis research. She is a co-PI on Huntsman Cancer Institute's Pathmaker Program R25, which funds summer research training for high school and undergraduate students throughout the Intermountain West.

Service: Dr. Mendoza is an ad hoc reviewer for multiple peer-reviewed scientific journals, including Science Signaling, Cell Reports, Journal of Cell Biology, and Oncogene. She is a standing member of the Cell Signaling and Regulatory Systems study section at NIH.

Research Statement

Cancer spread, or metastasis, involves improper cell movement. My research focuses on determining - at the mechanistic level - how a cell normally regulates the processes of cell movement and how this goes awry during cancer dissemination.