Davies Cancer Lab
Tumor ecosystem dynamics

Tumors are living ecosystems.

The Davies Cancer Lab develops living tissue models, time-lapse imaging, and computational approaches to understand how cancer cells respond to their surroundings across space and time— to reveal when and how tumor ecosystems can be intercepted before lethal progression.

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Live tissue imaging reveals tumor cells and host environments as dynamic ecosystems.
Therapy response in context

Watch drug response and adaptive tumor survival in real time.

Using SITE and LungSITE, we directly observe how tumor cells die, persist, and rewire signaling after treatment. This movie from an MCL1 inhibitor experiment captures the kind of dynamic response that static endpoint assays miss.

Directly measure response. Follow tumor death and persistence over hours to days in intact tissue environments.
Resolve adaptation. Link signaling dynamics and microenvironmental position to survival under therapy.
Design better combinations. Use real-time ecosystem measurements to identify vulnerabilities in adaptive tumor states.
Tumor death after MCL1 inhibitor addition, revealing dynamic response and adaptive survival in tissue context.

We study cancer as a living system.

Tumors are not static collections of cells. They are changing ecosystems shaped by signaling, physical contacts, tissue architecture, treatment, and time. Our work combines experimental tumor-host models with quantitative analysis to measure these processes directly.

Live-cell tissue models

Whole-tissue and tissue-like systems make it possible to watch tumor cells interact with host cells, extracellular matrix, and treatment in context.

Explore SITE → Methods, software, and resources

CancerDynamics.org

Explore the computational side of our work: SITE resources, live-cell trajectory modeling, MMIST, active tissue models, public materials, publications, and GitHub repositories.

Visit CancerDynamics.org →

Osteosarcoma and metastatic response

We use osteosarcoma as a powerful system to study metastatic survival, tumor-host signaling, and how therapies can be improved in the lung microenvironment.

Explore osteosarcoma work →
Portland, Oregon

Rooted at OHSU Knight Cancer Institute.

Our lab works from Portland's South Waterfront, where OHSU's Knight Cancer Institute brings together cancer biology, early detection, quantitative science, engineering, and translational medicine along the Willamette River.

A place-based research community. We are part of the OHSU and Knight Cancer Institute ecosystem, embedded in a collaborative environment built around cancer prevention, early detection, and better therapies.
Connected across disciplines. Our work links living tissue models, computational biology, engineering, and clinical cancer research.
Knight Cancer Research Building along the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon
Knight Cancer Research Building, OHSU, Portland, Oregon.
Support

Thank you to our funders and institutional partners.

This work is made possible by support for collaborative cancer research, live-cell imaging, computational modeling, early detection, and translational discovery.

Davies Lab funders and institutional partners

Our long-term goal is to define the rules that govern tumor progression and use them to identify better points of intervention.

Map cell state in context. Quantify signaling, position, contacts, and fate at single-cell resolution.
Measure tumor-host interactions. Determine how cells and tissue niches promote survival, death, invasion, and resistance.
Build predictive models. Translate longitudinal imaging into executable models of tumor ecosystem behavior.
Design control strategies. Use dynamics to reveal when, where, and how therapies can redirect tumor cell fate.