Rodney Stewart

Rodney Stewart, MPhil, PhD

Languages spoken: English

Academic Information

Departments Primary - Oncological Sciences

Lab

Rodney Stewart, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah and a Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) investigator. He is a member of the Cell Response and Regulation Program.

Stewart's research focuses on identifying genetic mechanisms and drugs that impact pediatric cancers of the nervous system. His research combines embryology and cancer biology approaches using zebrafish cancer models and human cancer cell models to find conserved targets for treatment of pediatric brain tumors. He is also interested in the discovery of new therapeutic targets in melanoma and neuroblastoma.

Before joining HCI, Stewart was a research fellow in the Department of Pediatric Oncology at Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he also served as an instructor in pediatric oncology. He earned a PhD from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

Education History

Undergraduate University of Melbourne
 BSc (Hons)

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Morrison MA, Zimmerman MW, Look AT, Stewart R (2016). Studying the peripheral sympathetic nervous system and neuroblastoma in zebrafish. Methods in cell biology, 134, 97-138.
  2. Stewart RA, Sanda T, Widlund HR, Zhu S, Swanson KD, Hurley AD, Bentires-Alj M, Fisher DE, Kontaridis MI, Look AT, Neel B (2010). Phosphatase-dependent and -independent functions of Shp2 in neural crest cells underlie LEOPARD syndrome pathogenesis. Developmental cell, 18(5), 750-62.
  3. Zhu S, Lee JS, Guo F, Shin J, Perez-Atayde AR, Kutok JL, Rodig SJ, Neuberg DS, Helman D, Feng H, Stewart RA, Wang W, George RE, Kanki JP, Look A (2012). Activated ALK collaborates with MYCN in neuroblastoma pathogenesis. Cancer cell, 21(3), 362-73.
  4. Boer EF, Howell ED, Schilling TF, Jette CA, Stewart R (2015). Fascin1-dependent Filopodia are required for directional migration of a subset of neural crest cells. PLoS genetics, 11(1), e1004946.
  5. Boer EF, Jette CA, Stewart R (2016). Neural Crest Migration and Survival Are Susceptible to Morpholino-Induced Artifacts. PloS one, 11(12), e0167278.
  6. Casey MJ, Modzelewska K, Anderson D, Goodman J, Boer EF, Jimenez L, Grossman D, Stewart R (2017). Transplantation of Zebrafish Pediatric Brain Tumors into Immune-competent Hosts for Long-term Study of Tumor Cell Behavior and Drug Response.LID - 10.3791/55712 [doi]. Journal of visualized experiments, (123),
  7. Jimenez L, Wang J, Morrison MA, Whatcott C, Soh KK, Warner S, Bearss D, Jette CA, Stewart R (2016). Phenotypic chemical screening using a zebrafish neural crest EMT reporter identifies retinoic acid as an inhibitor of epithelial morphogenesis. Disease models & mechanisms, 9(4), 389-400.
  8. Sorrells S, Nik S, Casey M, Cameron RC, Truong H, Toruno C, Gulfo M, Lowe A, Jette C, Stewart RA, Bowman T (2018). Spliceosomal components protect embryonic neurons from R-loop-mediated DNA damage and apoptosis.LID - dmm031583 [pii]LID - 10.1242/dmm.031583 [doi]. Disease models & mechanisms, 11(2),
  9. Modzelewska K, Boer EF, Mosbruger TL, Picard D, Anderson D, Miles RR, Kroll M, Oslund W, Pysher TJ, Schiffman JD, Jensen R, Jette CA, Huang A, Stewart R (2016). MEK Inhibitors Reverse Growth of Embryonal Brain Tumors Derived from Oligoneural Precursor Cells. Cell reports, 17(5), 1255-1264.
  10. Casey MJ, Call AM, Thorpe AV, Jette CA, Engel ME, Stewart R (2022). The scaffolding function of LSD1/KDM1A reinforces a negative feedback loop to repress stem cell gene expression during primitive hematopoiesis. iScience, 26(1), 105737.
  11. Gopal U, Monroe JD, Marudamuthu AS, Begum S, Walters BJ, Stewart RA, Washington CW, Gibert Y, Zachariah M (2023). Development of a Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Leptomeningeal Disease Model in Zebrafish. Cells, 12(7),
  12. Casey MJ, Chan PP, Li Q, Zu JF, Jette CA, Kohler M, Myers BR, Stewart R (2024). A simple and scalable zebrafish model of Sonic hedgehog medulloblastoma. Cell reports, 43(8), 114559.

Review

  1. Casey MJ, Stewart R (2017). Zebrafish as a model to study neuroblastoma development.LID - 10.1007/s00441-017-2702-0 [doi]. Cell and tissue research,
  2. Casey MJ, Stewart R (2020). Pediatric Cancer Models in Zebrafish. Trends in cancer, 6(5), 407-418.