Shannon earned a BS (University of New Hampshire), MS (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), and PhD (Georgia Tech) in Mechanical Engineering.   The Stott laboratory at the MGH Center for Cancer is comprised of bioengineers and chemists who are focused on translating technological advances to relevant applications in clinical medicine.   A former postdoctoral fellow in Mehmet Toner’s lab, Shannon has furthered her interests in using microfluidics and imaging technologies to create tools that increase understanding of cancer biology and of the metastatic process. In collaboration with the Toner, Haber and Maheswaran laboratories, the Stott lab has developed a microfluidic device that can isolate extraordinarily rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from the blood of cancer patients.   The lab is striving to employ new imaging modalities to extract as much information as possible from these rare cells while pushing the technology further for early cancer detection.  The group’s research is focused in three areas: (1) development and application of microfluidic devices for the isolation and characterization of CTCs, (2) novel imaging strategies to characterize cancer cells and the dynamics of metastasis, and (3) enrichment and analysis of exosomes and microvesicles using microfluidics.  Ultimately, the Stott lab hopes that by working in close partnership with the molecular and cell biologists at the Mass General Cancer Center, new tools that directly impact patient care can be created.

Representative publications

Aceto N, Bardia A, Miyamoto DT, Donaldson MC, Wittner BS, Spencer JA, et al. Circulating tumor cell clusters are oligoclonal precursors of breast cancer metastasis. Cell. 2014 Aug 28;158(5):1110-22. PubMed PMID: 25171411; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4149753

Luo X, Mitra D, Sullivan RJ, Wittner BS, Kimura AM, Pan S, et al. Isolation and characterization of circulating melanoma cells. Cell Reports. 2014 May; 7(3):645-53. PubMed PMID: 24746818; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4079008

Karabacak NM, Sphuler PS, Fachin F, Lim EJ, Pai V, Ozkumur E, et al. Microfluidic, marker-free isolation of circulating tumor cells from blood samples. Nature Protocols. 2014 Mar;9(3):694-710. PubMed PMID: 24577360; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4179254

Yu M, Bardia A,Wittner BS, Stott SL, Smas ME, Ting DT, et al. Circulating Breast Tumor Cells in Humans Exhibit Dynamic Changes in Epithelial and Mesenchymal Cell Composition. Science. 2013 Feb; 339(6119):580-4. PubMed PMID: 23372014; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3760262

Miyamoto DT, Lee RJ, Stott SL, Ting DT, Wittner BS, Ulman M, et al. Androgen receptor signaling in circulating tumor cells as a marker of hormonally responsive prostate cancer. Cancer Discovery. 2012 Nov; 2(11):995-1003. PubMed PMID: 23093251; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3508523

Yu M, Ting DT, Stott SL, Wittner BS, Ozsolak F, Paul S, et al. RNA sequencing of circulating pancreatic tumour cells implicates Wnt signaling in metastasis. Nature. 2012 Jul; 487(7408):510-3. PubMed PMID: 22763454; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3408856

Stott SL, Hsu CH, Tsukrov DI, Yu M, Miyamoto DT, Waltman BA, et al. Isolation of circulating tumor cells using a microvortex-generating herringbone-chip. PNAS. 2010 Oct; 107(43):18392-7. PubMed PMID: 20930119; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2972993

Stott SL, Lee RJ, Nagrath S, Yu M, Miyamoto DT, Ulkus L, et al. Isolation and characterization of circulating tumor cells from patients with localized and metastatic prostate cancer. Sci Transl Med. 2010 Mar; 2(25):25ra23. PubMed PMID: 20424012; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3141292

Information

Shannon L. Stott, Ph.D.
Center for Cancer Research at MGH
149 16th Street, Room 7.148
Charlestown, MA 02129

View Shannon’s Harvard Catalyst profile