Chief Translational Research Officer, Ellison Institute of Technology
Assistant Professor of Medicine & Biomedical Engineering, USC
310 228 6400
Shannon Mumenthaler is the Chief Translational Research Officer for the Ellison Institute of Technology and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. As Chief Translational Research Officer, she helps guide the scientific planning of the Institute, ensure the faculty have the tools they need for their research, and strategize the partnerships and goals of the institute.
Dr. Mumenthaler completed her BS in Genetics at UC Davis and then went on to earn a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Pathology at UCLA. Although her primary scientific training is in cell biology, she applies a unique multidisciplinary approach toward her research program, partnering with mathematicians, clinicians and engineers to explore critical areas in cancer. Her overall research interest focuses on the importance of the tumor microenvironment in influencing tumor progression and treatment response. She is developing more physiologically-relevant model systems that capture the microenvironmental context of a tumor and coupling these preclinical models with microscopy-based imaging pipelines to provide deeper insights into the evolving tumor.
Dr. Mumenthaler is inspired by working with colleagues from diverse scientific backgrounds to think outside the box, devise new ways of approaching cancer, create new model systems, and push the limits of cancer research.
Cancer Cell Biology
Tumor Microenvironment
Drug Resistance
2003 Genetics – University of California, Davis, CA
2008 Cellular and Molecular Pathology – University of California, Los Angeles, CA
2008-2009 Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Louis Warschaw Prostate Cancer Center, Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles, CA
2009-2012 Postdoctoral Research Associate – Department of Medicine, University of Southern California
Life Sciences Catalyst Award, 2019
Outstanding Investigator Award, Western American Federation for Medical Research, 2019
USC: Undergraduate Research Associates Program (URAP), 2017
USC: Rose Hills Fellowship Fund for Undergraduate Research, 2015, 2016, 2018
National Cancer Institute: Junior Investigator Award, 2013
USC: Medical Faculty Women’s Association Award, 2013
UCLA: Hortenese Fishbaugh Memorial Scholarship, 2006-2007
UCLA: Life Sciences Core Curriculum Teaching Assistant Honorarium Award, 2005-2006
2020-2023, Translational Team Accelerator Award, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center (Co-Investigator)
2019-2022, NIH/NCI R01 (Co-Investigator)
2019-2021, Henry Jackson Foundation (Co-Investigator)
2019-2020, NCI Cancer Center Development Funds, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center (Principal Investigator)
2018-2023, NIH/NCI Cancer Systems Biology Consortium U01 (Multi-Principal Investigator)
2018-2019, Stop Cancer Member Seed Grant (Principal Investigator)
2017-2021 American Cancer Society (Co-Investigator)
2015-2019, Stephenson Family Personalized Medicine Center, Philanthropic Donation (Co-Director)
E.R. Spiller, N. Ung, S. Kim, K. Patsch, R. Lau, C. Strelez, C. Doshi, S.J. Choung, B. Choi, E.F.J. Rosales, H.J. Lenz, N. Matasci†, S.M. Mumenthaler†. Imaging-based machine learning analysis of patient-derived tumor organoid drug response. Frontiers in Oncology. 2021 December 21;11:771173. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.771173. View in: Frontiers on Oncology
Strelez C, Chilakala S, Ghaffarian K, Lau R, Spiller E, Ung N, Hixon D, Yoon AY, Sun RX, Lenz HJ, Katz JE, Mumenthaler SM. Human colorectal cancer-on-chip model to study the microenvironmental influence on early metastatic spread. iScience. 2021 May 2;24(5):102509. View in: PubMed
Chiang CT, Lau R, Ghaffarizadeh A, Brovold M, Vyas D, Juárez EF, Atala A, Agus DB, Soker S, Macklin P, Ruderman D, Mumenthaler SM. High-throughput microscopy reveals the impact of multifactorial environmental perturbations on colorectal cancer cell growth. Gigascience. 2021 Apr 19;10(4):giab026. View in: PubMed
Garvey CM, Lau R, Sanchez A, Sun RX, Fong EJ, Doche ME, Chen O, Jusuf A, Lenz HJ, Larson B, Mumenthaler SM. Anti-EGFR Therapy Induces EGF Secretion by Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts to Confer Colorectal Cancer Chemoresistance. Cancers (Basel). 2020 May 28;12(6):1393. View in: PubMed
Liu X, Lukowski JK, Flinders C, Kim S, Georgiadis RA, Mumenthaler SM, Hummon AB. MALDI-MSI of Immunotherapy: Mapping the EGFR-Targeting Antibody Cetuximab in 3D Colon-Cancer Cell Cultures. Anal Chem. 2018 Dec 18;90(24):14156-14164. View in: PubMed
Chiang CT, Demetriou AN, Ung N, Choudhury N, Ghaffarian K, Ruderman DL, Mumenthaler SM. mTORC2 contributes to the metabolic reprogramming in EGFR tyrosine-kinase inhibitor resistant cells in non-small cell lung cancer. Cancer Lett. 2018 Oct 10;434:152-159. View in: PubMed
Ghaffarizadeh A, Heiland R, Friedman SH, Mumenthaler SM, Macklin P. PhysiCell: An open source physics-based cell simulator for 3-D multicellular systems. PLoS Comput Biol. 2018 Feb 23;14(2):e1005991. View in: PubMed
Garvey CM, Spiller E, Lindsay D, Chiang CT, Choi NC, Agus DB, Mallick P, Foo J, Mumenthaler SM. A high-content image-based method for quantitatively studying context-dependent cell population dynamics. Sci Rep. 2016 Jul 25; 6:29752. View in: PubMed
Lindsay D, Garvey CM, Mumenthaler SM, Foo J. Leveraging Hypoxia-Activated Prodrugs to Prevent Drug Resistance in Solid Tumors. PLoS Comput Biol. 2016 Aug 25;12(8):e1005077. View in: PubMed
Mumenthaler SM, Foo J, Choi NC, Heise N, Leder K, Agus DB, Pao W, Michor F, Mallick P. The Impact of Microenvironmental Heterogeneity on the Evolution of Drug Resistance in Cancer Cells. Cancer Inform. 2015; 14(Suppl 4):19-31. View in: PubMed
Foo J, Leder K, Mumenthaler SM. Cancer as a moving target: understanding the composition and rebound growth kinetics of recurrent tumors. Evol Appl. 2013 Jan; 6(1):54-69. View in: PubMed
Mumenthaler SM, Foo J, Leder K, Choi NC, Agus DB, Pao W, Mallick P, Michor F. Evolutionary modeling of combination treatment strategies to overcome resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer. Mol Pharm. 2011 Dec 5; 8(6):2069-79. View in: PubMed
Mumenthaler SM, Ng PY, Hodge A, Bearss D, Berk G, Kanekal S, Redkar S, Taverna P, Agus DB, Jain A. Pharmacologic inhibition of Pim kinases alters prostate cancer cell growth and resensitizes chemoresistant cells to taxanes. Mol Cancer Ther. 2009 Oct; 8(10):2882-93. View in: PubMed
Mumenthaler SM, Rozengurt N, Livesay JC, Sabaghian A, Cederbaum SD, Grody WW. Disruption of arginase II alters prostate tumor formation in TRAMP mice. Prostate. 2008 Oct 1;68(14):1561-9. View in: PubMed