Alan Rapraeger, PhD

Dr. Rapraeger’s training in developmental and cancer biology led him to the discovery of syndecans as a postdoctoral fellow, and his laboratory has since been an international leader in the mechanisms by which this family of matrix receptors governs tumorigenesis and angiogenesis. His recent work shows that syndecans organize receptor signaling at the cell surface by providing docking sites for integrin and growth factor receptor tyrosine kinases.

Importantly, these extracellular linkage sites can be readily targeted by peptides called “synstatins,” which have significant potential as cancer therapeutics. Dr. Rapraeger’s laboratory will analyze the expression of two such syndecan-coupled complexes in this Wisconsin HN SPORE and test the efficacy of two synstatin peptides as treatments for this disease. His research lab, along with those of Drs. Justine Bruce (Project 3 co-leader), Randy Kimple (Project 4 co-leader) and Paul Harari (SPORE PI and Project 2 co-leader) are adjacent on the third floor of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research, which houses the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center. They work closely and share HNC reagents and tumor lines to advance the SPORE collaboration. Dr. Rapraeger’s laboratory is highly experienced in cell and molecular biology, microscopy and animal models of tumorigenesis and angiogenesis. Dr. Rapraeger has had leadership roles in the field of matrix biology, including serving as chair of the Proteoglycan Gordon Conference, on journal editorial boards, as chair of the ICI study section at NIH and on the governing council of the American Society for Matrix Biology. He is a professor in the Department of Human Oncology.