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James Valerinano Alvarez

Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology
Pharmacology & Cancer Biology

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology · 2022 - Present Pharmacology & Cancer Biology, Basic Science Departments

In the News


Published April 25, 2019
Uncovering the Path Breast Cancer Uses to Recur

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Recent Publications


Oxidative Phosphorylation Is a Metabolic Vulnerability of Endocrine Therapy-Tolerant Persister Cells in ER+ Breast Cancer.

Journal Article Cancer Res · March 14, 2025 Despite adjuvant treatment with endocrine therapies, estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancers recur in a significant proportion of patients. Recurrences are attributable to clinically undetectable endocrine-tolerant persister cancer cells that retai ... Full text Link to item Cite

Correction: Oncogenic Transformation by Inhibitor-Sensitive and -Resistant EGFR Mutants.

Journal Article PLoS Med · September 2024 [This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020313.]. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Optical imaging reveals chemotherapy-induced metabolic reprogramming of residual disease and recurrence.

Journal Article Sci Adv · April 5, 2024 Fewer than 20% of triple-negative breast cancer patients experience long-term responses to mainstay chemotherapy. Resistant tumor subpopulations use alternative metabolic pathways to escape therapy, survive, and eventually recur. Here, we show in vivo, lon ... Full text Link to item Cite
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Recent Grants


Defining the role of the histone methyltransferase G9a in mitigating replication stress in cancer

FellowshipPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Howard Hughes Medical Institute · 2020 - 2023

Pathways regulating dormant cell survival and recurrence

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by American Cancer Society, Inc. · 2019 - 2021

Exploring the role of polyploidy in tumor progression

FellowshipPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2019 - 2021

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Education, Training & Certifications


Harvard Medical School · 2005 Ph.D.
Pennsylvania State University · 1999 B.S.