John L Muschler, Ph.D.
Investigator
The Muschler lab is investigating how alterations in cancer cell surfaces, especially in the extracellular matrix (ECM) receptor dystroglycan, arise and contribute to a wide range of cancers. Restoring dystroglycan function in a tumor cell line reduces cancer potential. In breast cancer cells, dystroglycan anchors laminin—a protein critical to ECM assembly—to the cell surface. The loss of laminin alters both the ECM and cell interactions with the matrix, and may contribute to metastasis.