John S. Condeelis, Ph.D.

John Condeelis' research interests are in optical physics, cell biology and biophysics, cancer biology and mouse models of cancer. He and his collaborators developed the multiphoton imaging technology and animal models used to identify invasion and intravasation micro-environments in mammary tumors. Integration of intravital multiphoton imaging with computational /systems analysis of living breast tumors identified the dominant tumor cell phenotypes contributing to invasion and dissemination during metastasis. This led to the discovery and verification of the paracrine interaction between tumor cells and macrophages in vivo, the role of macrophages in the migration of tumor cells during HGF- dependent tumor cell streaming to blood vessels and the mechanism of tumor cell dissemination from primary tumors via TMEM (Tumor MicroEnvironment of Metastasis) doorways to distant metastatic sites. Based on these results, cell collection techniques, including the in vivo invasion assay, were developed for the collection of co-migrating macrophages and tumor cells, and disseminating tumor cells via the blood circulation. This led to the discovery of the mouse and human invasion signatures, and the TMEM doorway, MenaCalc and MenaINV markers for assessing risk of metastasis and prediction of response in breast cancer patients to both chemotherapy, and receptor tyrosine kinase and tyrosine kinase inhibitors used to suppress metastasis.

John Condeelis has devised optical microscopes for uncaging, biosensor detection and multiphoton imaging for these studies, and has used novel caged- enzymes and biosensors to test, in vivo, the predictions of the invasion signatures regarding the mechanisms of tumor cell dissemination and metastasis. He is one of the founding co-directors of the Integrated Imaging Program (IIP) dedicated to the integration and validation of clinical imaging platforms, including digital pathology, with high resolution optical imaging in the Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center (GLBPC). He is now the co-Director of the Integrated Imaging Progam for Cancer Research (IIPCR) which has extended the work in the GLBPC and IIP to clinical applications.. The IIPCR is dedicated to curing metastatic cancer. He has authored more than 370 scientific papers on various aspects of his research.

Selected Publications 2024-2026 (See complete list of publications.)

1. Yang Y, Wang X, Zhang J. Pirfenidone and nintedanib attenuate pulmonary fibrosis in mice by inhibiting the expression of JAK2. J Thorac Dis. 2024;16(2):1128-40. Epub 20240226. doi: 10.21037/jtd-23-1057. PubMed PMID: 38505034; PMCID: PMC10944717.
2. Oh SS, Narver HL. Mouse and Rat Anesthesia and Analgesia. Curr Protoc. 2024;4(2):e995. doi: 10.1002/cpz1.995. PubMed PMID: 38406895; PMCID: PMC10914332.
3. Migulina N, de Hilster RHJ, Bartel S, Vedder RHJ, van den Berge M, Nagelkerke A, Timens W, Harmsen MC, Hylkema MN, Brandsma CA, Burgess JK. 3-D culture of human lung fibroblasts decreases proliferative and increases extracellular matrix remodeling genes. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 2024;326(1):C177-C93. Epub 20231113. doi: 10.1152/ajpcell.00374.2023. PubMed PMID: 37955339.
4. Chioccioli M, Liu S, Magruder S, Tata A, Borriello L, McDonough JE, Konkimalla A, Kim SH, Nouws J, Gonzalez DG, Traub B, Ye X, Yang T, Entenberg DR, Krishnaswamy S, Hendry CE, Kaminski N, Tata PR, Sauler M. Stem cell migration drives lung repair in living mice. Dev Cell. 2024. Epub 20240214. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2024.02.003. PubMed PMID: 38377991.
5. Barth ND, Oktay MH, Condeelis JS, Brunton VG, Entenberg D. Ex Vivo Models to Study the Interaction of Immune Cells and Cancer Cells under Therapy. Nature Protocols Exchange. 2024. doi: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.pex-2544/v1.
6. Barron SL, Wyatt O, O'Connor A, Mansfield D, Suzanne Cohen E, Witkos TM, Strickson S, Owens RM. Modelling bronchial epithelial-fibroblast cross-talk in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) using a human-derived in vitro air liquid interface (ALI) culture. Sci Rep. 2024;14(1):240. Epub 20240102. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-50618-y. PubMed PMID: 38168149; PMCID: PMC10761879.
7. Friedman-DeLuca M, Karagiannis GS, Condeelis JS, Oktay MH, Entenberg D. Macrophages in tumor cell migration and metastasis. Front Immunol. 2024;15:1494462. Epub 20241101. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1494462. PubMed PMID: 39555068; PMCID: PMC11563815.
8. Bianchi AC, Anastasiadou DP, Cui MH, Condeelis JS, Branch CA, Karagiannis GS. Assessment of Metastatic Dissemination in Mouse Breast Carcinoma Models Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Methods Mol Biol. 2024; Special Issue “Imaging of Metastasis”.
9. Anampa JD, Flynn DL, Leary C, Oh S, Xue X, Oktay MH, Condeelis JS, and Sparano JA. Phase 1b clinical and pharmacodynamic study of the TIE2 kinase inhibitor rebastinib with paclitaxel or eribulin in HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2025 Jan 17;31(2):266-277. PMID: 39531537, PMCID: PMC11818423 (available on 2026-01-17) DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-24-2464
10. Lucotti S, et al Extracellular vesicles from the lung pro-thrombotic niche drive cancer-associated thrombosis and metastasis via integrin beta 2. Cell 2025, 188:1-20, doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.01.025. PubMed PMID: 39938515.
11. Friedman-DeLuca M, Karagiannis GS, Duran CL, Shukla S, Li J, Condeelis JS, Oktay MH, Entenberg D. Paclitaxel causes de novo induction of invasive breast cancer cells. BioRxiv 2025. Jan 15. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.13.632767
12. Duran C, Surve C, Ye X, Chen X, Lin Y, Harney A, Wang Y, Sharma V, Stanley R, Cox D, McAuliffe J, Entenberg D, Oktay M, and Condeelis J. Revealing signaling events at TMEM doorways provide potential targets for inhibiting breast cancer dissemination, Oncogene, 2025. Epub 20250711. doi: 10.1038/s41388-025-03485-y. PubMed PMID: 40646332
13. Karagiannis GS, Eddy RJ, Sparano JA, Mesias JA, Rohan TE, Branch C, Condeelis JS, Entenberg D, Oktay MH. Detection of TMEM Doorways and Their Activity Required for Metastasis.  Cancer Detection and Diagnosis: CRC Press; 2025. p. 82-91. DOI: 10.1201/9781003449942-11.
14. Nauman M, Jung Y, Karadal BF, Suryansh S, Duran CL, Li J, Patel P, Friedman-DeLuca M, Barth ND, Eddy R, Guo W, Condeelis JS, Entenberg D, Oktay MH. Metastatic dissemination of breast cancer stem cells requires MenaINV for lung extravasation but not survival. bioRxiv. Preprint (2026):2026.01.21.700685. doi: 10.64898/2026.01.21.700685.
15. Zambalde EP, Ariyan LA, Puerta-Martinez F, Zhu YQ, Patil P, Panarelli NC, Li J, Jung Y, Adkisson C, Petersen J, Dianne Cox, Gil-Henn H, Eddy R, Stanger BZ, Entenberg D, Oktay MH, Condeelis JS, McAuliffe JC. Tie2 inhibition disrupts TMEM doorway function and reduces dissemination in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. J Exp Clin Cancer Res, 2026 In Press.
16. Duran CL, Surve CR, Patel PP, Hirsch J, Li J, Ye X, Barth ND, Chen X, Shukla S, Karagiannis GS, McAuliffe JC, Entenberg D, Cox D, Condeelis JS, Oktay MH. Tie2 signaling in the tumor microenvironment orchestrates breast cancer cell dissemination through TMEM doorways. bioRxiv, 2026. (in review)
17. Parmar P, Karadal-Ferrena B, Shukla S, Miller A, Zhang C, Huang C, D'Alfonso T, Han R, Adler E, Ladak N, Ginter PS, Fineberg S, Ye X, Ginsberg M, Rosenbaum C, Felder M, Lin Y, Chen X, Eddy RJ, Rohan TE, Condeelis JS, Xue X, Anampa J, Sparano JA, Entenberg D, Oktay MH. Racial disparity in pro-metastatic tumor microenvironment in treatment naïve breast cancer. Nature PJ Breast Cancer. 2026 In Press.