#  Aaron Hata 

Assistant Professor

 

 

 



   ![hata_aaron.jpeg](/sites/g/files/omnuum5321/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/bbsphd/files/hata_aaron.jpeg?itok=gDGOZ-B6) 

 



 

 location\_on Massachusetts General Hospital EastBuilding 149, Room 740413th StreetCharlestown, MA 02129 

 email <ahata@mgh.harvard.edu> 

 laptop\_windows [Lab Website](https://hatalab.mgh.harvard.edu/) 

 laptop\_windows [Publications](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/18sNkbi9uDj5d/bibliography/public/) 

 

 



 

Over the past decade, the treatment of lung cancer has been dramatically transformed by the development of molecular targeted therapies and immunotherapies that are enabling increasingly personalized treatment regimens. While this has led to significant gains in patient survival and quality of life, for the majority of patients, these therapies are not curative, and acquired drug resistance inevitably occurs. The focus of our research is to identify mechanisms of drug resistance that drive disease progression and develop novel therapeutic approaches to overcome them. In particular, we are interested in defining the evolutionary trajectories by which tumor cells escape initial therapy, persist for extended periods of time in a quasi-dormant state, and then acquire additional adaptations that enable emergence of a fully resistant state. To do so, we apply a wide range of computational and experimental tools to interrogate genomic, epigenetic and phenotypic changes that occur in clinical samples from patients treated with targeted therapies in the clinic or in high fidelity patient-derived tumor models that we develop with our lab. We have begun to identify fundamental adaptations within tumor cells that increase cell state plasticity, accelerate mutation rates and facilitate the eventual emergence of resistant clones. We have also begun to functionally define heterogenous populations of cancer associated fibroblasts and their impact on tumor cell drug response and surrounding immune cell populations. Ultimately, our goal is to leverage these insights to develop novel therapies that can simultaneously target multiple aspects of tumor adaptation and evolution to prevent drug resistance from developing.



 

 

 





 

 

- ## Program Affiliation
    
     [Landry Cancer Biology Consortium](/program-affiliation/landry-cancer-biology-consortium) [Leder Human Biology](/bbs-faculty/leder-human-biology)
- ## People
    
     [Faculty](/people/faculty)
- ## Location
    
     [Massachusetts General Hospital](/location/massachusetts-general-hospital)