Biography
Dr. Ortiz-Urda is the Co-Director of the UCSF Melanoma Center
which treats patients with early and advanced melanoma. She also
leads a research laboratory focused on identifying the mechanisms
of early melanoma progression. The laboratory uses epithelial
tissue as a model system to study stem melanoma progression and new
molecular therapeutics. She is a member of the American Academy of
Dermatology, Austrian Society of Dermatology and Venerology, and
the Dermatology Foundation. Dr. Ortiz-Urda has received several
awards, including the Kardinal-Innitzer Award for Outstanding
Science in Dermatology and the Unilever Award from the Austrian
Society for Dermatology and Venerology.
Research Overview
My research interest is centered in the mechanisms involved in
cancer progression. In recent studies we studied the role of
tumor-stroma interactions in epithelial tumorigenesis. Our goal now
is to identify the earliest melanoma precursors and to study the
mechanisms of intraepidermal melanoma progression taking advantage
of a human tissue model of human melanoma.
Our laboratory is currently pursuing studies of the signaling
and gene regulatory networks that control this process. Our studies
are designed to identify potential biomarkers in unresected occult
melanoma, establish improved methods to identify occult
intraepidermal melanoma, rationalize resection margins, and find
treatments to reduce melanoma recurrence at the primary site. My
lab is also interested in the epigenetic mechanisms involved in
cancer progression and in expression analysis between consecutive
stages of tumor progression. These studies are designed to identify
targets for genes involved in the migration, proliferation, and
invasion of mutant melanocytes.