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Joshua Ginzel

Duke Temporary Service
Cell Biology

Selected Publications


Nonlinear progression during the occult transition establishes cancer lethality.

Journal Article Dis Model Mech · March 1, 2025 Cancer screening relies upon a linear model of neoplastic growth and progression. Yet, historical observations suggest that malignant progression is uncoupled from growth, which may explain the paradoxical increase in early-stage breast cancer detection wi ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

A LGR5 reporter pig model closely resembles human intestine for improved study of stem cells in disease.

Journal Article FASEB J · June 2023 Intestinal epithelial stem cells (ISCs) are responsible for intestinal epithelial barrier renewal; thereby, ISCs play a critical role in intestinal pathophysiology research. While transgenic ISC reporter mice are available, advanced translational studies l ... Full text Link to item Cite

Veterinary Management of Harderian Gland Tumors in Cancer Rainbow (crainbow) HER2-Positive Mice.

Journal Article Comp Med · December 1, 2022 A Cancer Rainbow mouse line that expresses 3 fluorescently labeled isoforms of the tumor-driver gene HER2 (HER2BOW) was developed recently for the study of tumorigenesis in the mammary gland. The expression of 1 of the 3 HER2 isoforms in HER2BOW mice is in ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Non-Invasive Deep Photoablation Technique to Inhibit DCIS Progression and Induce Antitumor Immunity.

Journal Article Cancers (Basel) · November 23, 2022 Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast is often managed by lumpectomy and radiation or mastectomy, despite its indolent features. Effective non-invasive treatment strategies could reduce the morbidity of DCIS treatment. We have exploited the high he ... Full text Link to item Cite

HSP90-Specific nIR Probe Identifies Aggressive Prostate Cancers: Translation from Preclinical Models to a Human Phase I Study.

Journal Article Mol Cancer Ther · January 2022 A noninvasive test to discriminate indolent prostate cancers from lethal ones would focus treatment where necessary while reducing overtreatment. We exploited the known activity of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) as a chaperone critical for the function of n ... Full text Link to item Cite

Measuring Nonapoptotic Caspase Activity with a Transgenic Reporter in Mice.

Journal Article eNeuro · 2022 The protease caspase-3 is a key mediator of apoptotic programmed cell death. But weak or transient caspase activity can contribute to neuronal differentiation, axonal pathfinding, and synaptic long-term depression. Despite the importance of sublethal, or n ... Full text Link to item Cite

HER2 Isoforms Uniquely Program Intratumor Heterogeneity and Predetermine Breast Cancer Trajectories During the Occult Tumorigenic Phase.

Journal Article Mol Cancer Res · October 2021 HER2-positive breast cancers are among the most heterogeneous breast cancer subtypes. The early amplification of HER2 and its known oncogenic isoforms provide a plausible mechanism in which distinct programs of tumor heterogeneity could be traced to the in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Heat shock protein 90-targeted photodynamic therapy enables treatment of subcutaneous and visceral tumors.

Journal Article Commun Biol · May 8, 2020 Photodynamic therapy (PDT) ablates malignancies by applying focused near-infrared (nIR) light onto a lesion of interest after systemic administration of a photosensitizer (PS); however, the accumulation of existing PS is not tumor-exclusive. We developed a ... Full text Link to item Cite

A cancer rainbow mouse for visualizing the functional genomics of oncogenic clonal expansion.

Journal Article Nat Commun · December 2, 2019 Field cancerization is a premalignant process marked by clones of oncogenic mutations spreading through the epithelium. The timescales of intestinal field cancerization can be variable and the mechanisms driving the rapid spread of oncogenic clones are unk ... Full text Link to item Cite