Aristidis Moustakas

Scientific Director SciLifeLab, Uppsala University

Host university contact page

aris.moustakas@imbim.uu.se

+46738527169

Keywords

Cancer, Epigenetics, extracellular vesicles, gene regulation, metastasis, non-coding RNA biology, oncogenes, Proteomics, transcriptomics, tumor suppressor genes

Key publications

Moustakas, A., and Heldin, C.-H. (2009)
The regulation of TGF-β signal transduction.
Development 136, 3699-3714.1.

Lönn, P., van der Heide, L.P., Dahl, M., Hellman, U., Heldin, C.-H., and Moustakas, A. (2010)
PARP-1 attenuates Smad-mediated transcription.
Mol. Cell, 40, 521-532.72.

Moustakas, A., and Heldin, C.-H. (2012)
Induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition by transforming growth factor β.
Sem. Cancer Biol., 22, 446-454.

Tan, E.-J., Kahata, K., Idås, O., Thuault, S., Heldin, C.-H., and Moustakas, A. (2015)
The high mobility group A2 protein epigenetically silences the Cdh1 gene during epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.
Nucl. Acids Res. 43, 162-178.88.

Bellomo, C., Caja, L., Fabregat, I., Mikulits, W., Kardassis, D., Heldin, C.-H. and Moustakas, A. (2017)
Snail mediates crosstalk between TGFβ and LXRα in hepatocellular carcinoma.
Cell Death Differ. 25, 885-903.

Kahata, K., Dadras, S. M. and Moustakas, A. (2017)
TGF-β family signaling in epithelial differentiation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition.
Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol. 10, pii: a022194.

Kahata, K., Maturi, V. and Moustakas, A. (2017)
TGFβ family signaling in ductal differentiation and branching morphogenesis.
Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol. 10, pii: a031997.

Caja, L., Tzavlaki, K., Dadras, M.S., Hatem, G., Pendekanti, N.P., Savary, K., Morén, A., Watanabe, Y., Heldin, C.-H. and Moustakas, A. (2018)
Snail regulates BMP and TGFβ pathways to control the differentiation status of glioma initiating cells.
Oncogene 37, 2515-2531.

Papoutsoglou, P., Tsubakihara, Y., Caja, L., Pallis, P., Ameur, A., Heldin, C.-H., and Moustakas, A. (2019)
The TGFB2-AS1 lncRNA regulates TGFβ signaling by modulating corepressor activity.
Cell Rep. 28, 3182-3198. 108.

Tsubakihara, Y., Ohata, Y., Okita, Y., Younis, S., Eriksson, J., Sellin, M.E., Ren, J., ten Dijke, P., Miyazono, K., Hikita, A., Imamura, T., Kato, M., Heldin, C.-H., and Moustakas, A. (2022)
TGFβ selects for pro-stemness over pro-invasive phenotypes during cancer cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition.
Mol. Oncol. 16, 2330-2354.

Gulley, J.L., Schlom, J., Barcellos-Hoff, M.H., Wang, X.-J., Seoane, J., Audhuy, F., Lan, Y., Dussault, I., and Moustakas, A. (2022)
Dual inhibition of TGF-β and PD-L1: a novel cancer treatment approach.
Mol. Oncol. 16, 2117-2134.

SciLifeLab / Contact / Aristidis Moustakas

Aristidis Moustakas

Research Intrests

The Aristidis Moustakas group is a molecular and cell biology research unit with special expertise in signal transduction and cell differentiation. We study these biological processes in the context of cancer. This approach generates significant opportunities for the generation of new methods of treating cancers, collectively called differentiation therapy methods.

More specifically our research focuses on some of the major signal transduction pathways, namely the transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) and the related bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) pathway, which play central roles in controlling the differentiation of many cell types. The TGFβ/BMP pathways also take central stage in the progression and ultimate metastasis of essentially all tumors. The research scans several tumor types, breast, lung, liver cancer and brain tumors, aiming at uncovering common, general principles that drive the behavior of these tumor types. Our research group gradually maps the complex signaling routes and their connections to transcription factors and gene networks that orchestrate the behavior of malignant cells.

Group Members

Anita Morén, Senior technician
Chrysoula Tsirigoti, PhD stud.
Caroline Gélabert, PhD stud.
Laia Caja Puigsubirà, Researcher.
Yae Ohata, postdoc.
Irene Golàn Cancela, Researcher.
Dorival Mendes Rodrigues Jr., postdoc.
Mohamad Moustafa Ali, postdoc.
Maria Peleli, postdoc.
Yuka Itoh, visiting researcher.
Diana Öz, MSc student.
Ayana Nakada, visiting student.