Matt Lazzara

Education:

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Florida, 1997
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, MIT, 2003 (Professor William M. Deen, advisor)

Postdoctoral Work:

Jan 2003 – Jan 2004, Chemical Engineering MIT, Professor William M. Deen, advisor

February 2004 – present, Biological Engineering MIT, Professor Douglas A. Lauffenburger, advisor

Awards:

NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2005-present

Collaborators:

Paul Jasper, Sorger Lab, MIT Biology
Gordon Lu, Sorger Lab, MIT Biology
Keara Lane, Jacks Lab, MIT Cancer Center
Birgit Schoeberl, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals

Brief Description of Current Work:

In addition to their signal transduction role in health, ErbB receptors are implicated in multiple human cancers and thus constitute prime targets for anti-cancer therapeutics. Our work entails a systems approach for elucidating how ErbB trafficking and signaling influence cell fates in the presence of stimulatory factors and therapeutic molecules. One area of focus is the recently identified kinase-inhibitor-sensitive mutant EGFR. A second area is elucidation of differences among ErbB stimulatory ligands and their ability to drive differential cell signaling and outcomes. In each case, we employ high-throughput measurements of signaling, proliferation, and death and draw upon ode-based models of ErbB trafficking and signaling to inform experimental design and interpretation of data.

Publications:

Lazzara MJ, Blankschtein D, and Deen WM. Effects of multi-solute steric interactions on membrane partition coefficients. J Colloid Interface Sci 226: 112-122, 2000.

Deen WM, Lazzara MJ, and Myers BD. Structural determinants of glomerular permeability. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 281: F579-F596, 2001.

Lazzara MJ and Deen WM. Effects of plasma proteins on the sieving of tracer macromolecules in glomerular basement membrane. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 281: F860-F868, 2001.

Lazzara MJ and Deen WM. Effects of concentration on the partitioning of macromolecule mixtures in agarose gels. J Colloid Interface Sci 272: 288-297, 2004.

van Roosmalen D, Lazzara MJ, van den Broeke LJP, Keurentjes JTF, and Blankschtein D. Protein partitioning driven by excluded-volume interactions in an aqueous nonionic micellar-gel system. Biotech Bioeng 87: 695-703, 2004.

Deen WM and Lazzara MJ. Glomerular filtration of albumin: How small is the sieving coefficient? Kidney Int 66: S63-S64, 2004.

Lazzara MJ and Deen WM. A model of albumin reabsorption in the renal proximal tubule. In preparation.

Hendriks BH, Griffiths GJ, Benson R, Lazzara MJ, Swinton J, Hickinson M, Beusmans JM, Lauffenburger DA, DeGraaf D. Decreased internalization of ErbB1 mutants in lung cancer links oncogenesis with a mechanism conferring sensitivity to gefitinib. Submitted.