Justin Pritchard

Huck Early Career Entrepreneurial Professorship; Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering;

Justin Pritchard

Research Summary

Using systems and synthetic biology approaches to understand and control drug resistance.

Huck Graduate Students

Huck Affiliations

Links

Most Recent Publications

The risks of perpetuating an evolutionary arms race in drug discovery

Scott Leighow*, Justin Pritchard, Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health

Genomic and experimental evidence that alternate transcription initiation of the Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) kinase domain does not predict single agent sensitivity to

Haider Inam*, Ivan Sokirniy*, Yiyun Rao*, Anushka Shah*, Farnaz Naeemikia*, Edward O'Brien, Cheng Dong, Justin Pritchard, iScience on p. 21

goloco: a web application to create genome scale information from surprisingly small experiments

Sajid M. Hossain, Yiyun Rao, Jahid O. Hossain, Justin R. Pritchard, Boyang Zhao, 2025, BMC Bioinformatics

Programming tumor evolution with selection gene drives to proactively combat drug resistance

Scott M. Leighow, Joshua A. Reynolds, Ivan Sokirniy, Shun Yao, Zeyu Yang, Haider Inam, Dominik Wodarz, Marco Archetti, Justin Pritchard, 2024, Nature Biotechnology on p. 19

Incorporating mutational heterogeneity to identify genes that are enriched for synonymous mutations in cancer

Yiyun Rao, Nabeel Ahmed, Justin Pritchard, Edward P. O’Brien, 2023, BMC Bioinformatics

Excessive concentrations of kinase inhibitors in translational studies impede effective drug repurposing

Chuan Liu, Scott M. Leighow, Kyle McIlroy, Mengrou Lu, Kady A. Dennis, Kerry Abello, Donovan J. Brown, Connor J. Moore, Anushka Shah, Haider Inam, Victor M. Rivera, Justin R. Pritchard, 2023, Cell Reports Medicine

Novel fourth generation-like CAR<sup>miR</sup> cells release therapeutic miRNA via exosomes and enhance glioblastoma cell killing activity

Amar Yeware, Angelica Helton, Yicheng Dong, Cheng Dong, Justin Pritchard, Kentaro Minagawa, Shin Mineishi, Todd Schell, Daniel Hayes, 2023, Biochemical Engineering Journal on p. 109068

How soluble misfolded proteins bypass chaperones at the molecular level

Ritaban Halder, Daniel Nissley, Ian Sitarik, Yang Jiang, Yiyun Rao, Quyen Vu, Mai Li, Justin Pritchard, Edward P. O’Brien, 2023, Nature Communications on p. 3689

An engineered N-acyltransferase-LOV2 domain fusion protein enables light-inducible allosteric control of enzymatic activity

J. A. Reynolds, Y. L. Vishweshwaraiah, V. R. Chirasani, J. R. Pritchard, N. V. Dokholyan, 2023, Journal of Biological Chemistry

The role of migration in mutant dynamics in fragmented populations

Jesse Kreger, Donovan Brown, Natalia L. Komarova, Dominik Wodarz, Justin Pritchard, 2023, Journal of Evolutionary Biology on p. 444-460

Most-Cited Papers

A subset of platinum-containing chemotherapeutic agents kills cells by inducing ribosome biogenesis stress

Peter M. Bruno, Yunpeng Liu, Ga Young Park, Junko Murai, Catherine E. Koch, Timothy J. Eisen, Justin R. Pritchard, Yves Pommier, Stephen J. Lippard, Michael T. Hemann, 2017, Nature Medicine on p. 461-471

Programmable transcriptional repression in mycobacteria using an orthogonal CRISPR interference platform

Jeremy M. Rock, Forrest F. Hopkins, Alejandro Chavez, Marieme Diallo, Michael R. Chase, Elias R. Gerrick, Justin R. Pritchard, George M. Church, Eric J. Rubin, Christopher M. Sassetti, Dirk Schnappinger, Sarah M. Fortune, 2017, Nature Microbiology

The primary mechanism of cytotoxicity of the chemotherapeutic agent CX-5461 is topoisomerase II poisoning

Peter M. Bruno, Mengrou Lu, Kady A. Dennis, Haider Inam, Connor J. Moore, John Sheehe, Stephen J. Elledge, Michael T. Hemann, Justin R. Pritchard, 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on p. 4053-4060

Identification of genes required for Mycobacterium abscessus growth in vivo with a prominent role of the ESX-4 locus

Laura Laencina, Violaine Dubois, Vincent Le Moigne, Albertus Viljoen, Laleh Majlessi, Justin Pritchard, Audrey Bernut, Laura Piel, Anne Laure Roux, Jean Louis Gaillard, Bérengère Lombard, Damarys Loew, Eric J. Rubin, Roland Brosch, Laurent Kremer, Jean Louis Herrmann, Fabienne Girard-Misguich, 2018, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on p. E1002-E1011

Exploiting Temporal Collateral Sensitivity in Tumor Clonal Evolution

Boyang Zhao, Joseph C. Sedlak, Raja Srinivas, Pau Creixell, Justin R. Pritchard, Bruce Tidor, Douglas A. Lauffenburger, Michael T. Hemann, 2016, Cell on p. 234-246

Acquisition of a single EZH2 D1 domain mutation confers acquired resistance to EZH2-targeted inhibitors

Theresa Baker, Sujata Nerle, Justin Pritchard, Boyang Zhao, Victor M. Rivera, Andrew Garner, Francois Gonzalvez, 2015, Oncotarget on p. 32646-32655

A genome-scale in vivo loss-of-function screen identifies phf6 as a lineage-specific regulator of leukemia cell growth

Corbin E. Meacham, Lee N. Lawton, Yadira M. Soto-Feliciano, Justin R. Pritchard, Brian A. Joughin, Tobias Ehrenberger, Nina Fenouille, Johannes Zuber, Richard T. Williams, Richard A. Young, Michael T. Hemann, 2015, Genes and Development on p. 483-488

Multiple screening approaches reveal HDAC6 as a novel regulator of glycolytic metabolism in triple-negative breast cancer

Catríona M. Dowling, Kate E.R. Hollinshead, Alessandra Di Grande, Justin Pritchard, Hua Zhang, Eugene T. Dillon, Kathryn Haley, Eleni Papadopoulos, Anita K. Mehta, Rachel Bleach, Andreas U. Lindner, Brian Mooney, Heiko Düssmann, Darran O'Connor, Jochen H.M. Prehn, Kieran Wynne, Michael Hemann, James E. Bradner, Alec C. Kimmelman, Jennifer L. Guerriero, Gerard Cagney, Kwok Kin Wong, Anthony G. Letai, Tríona Ní Chonghaile, 2021, Science advances

Single-molecule sequencing reveals patterns of preexisting drug resistance that suggest treatment strategies in Philadelphia-positive leukemias

Michael W. Schmitt, Justin R. Pritchard, Scott M. Leighow, Bella I. Aminov, Lan Beppu, Daniel S. Kim, J. Graeme Hodgson, Victor M. Rivera, Lawrence A. Loeb, Jerald P. Radich, 2018, Clinical Cancer Research on p. 5321-5334

Ultra-accurate Duplex Sequencing for the assessment of pretreatment ABL1 kinase domain mutations in Ph+ ALL

Nicholas J. Short, Hagop Kantarjian, Rashmi Kanagal-Shamanna, Koji Sasaki, Farhad Ravandi, Jorge Cortes, Marina Konopleva, Ghayas C. Issa, Steven M. Kornblau, Guillermo Garcia-Manero, Rebecca Garris, Jake Higgins, Gabriel Pratt, Lindsey N. Williams, Charles C. Valentine, Victor M. Rivera, Justin Pritchard, Jesse J. Salk, Jerald Radich, Elias Jabbour, 2020, Blood Cancer Journal

News Articles Featuring Justin Pritchard

Jul 08, 2024

'I've never seen anything like this': Scientists hijack cancer genes to turn tumors against themselves

Scientists overcame cancer drug resistance in a new proof-of-concept study.

Full Article

Jul 05, 2024

Cancer Treatment Approach Targets Resistance, Gene Drive Style

Tumors and swarms of disease-carrying insects may not seem to have much in common, until you try to destroy them. Pesticide by pesticide, or chemotherapeutic by chemotherapeutic, the very thing you’re trying to destroy evolves resistance until you’ve exhausted every available option. This commonality would hardly be worth mentioning, except that an emerging means of disease vector control—gene drive—has inspired a new anticancer approach.

Full Article

Jul 04, 2024

Re-engineering cancerous tumors to self-destruct and kill drug-resistant cells

A team led by Penn State researchers has created a modular genetic circuit that turns cancer cells into a “Trojan horse,” causing them to self-destruct and kill nearby drug-resistant cancer cells. Tested in human cell lines and in mice as proof of concept, the circuit outsmarted a wide range of resistance.

Full Article

Jan 11, 2024

Predicting correct dosage may improve success of drug repurposing

Penn State researchers developed a model to predict how much of a drug designed to treat one disease may be needed to be effective against others

Full Article

Jun 12, 2023

Penn State announces tenure-line faculty promotions, effective July 1, 2023

The following is a list of academic promotions for tenured and tenure-line faculty members at Penn State, effective July 1, 2023.

Full Article

Feb 10, 2021

Researchers awarded $1.5M to create stem cell predictive model

Stem cells are the building blocks of the body, according to Penn State researchers. Though similar to one another at their origins, stem cells take on unique characteristics as they mature, becoming specialized cells throughout the body — such as bone, muscle, ligament, tissue or other organ cells.

Full Article

Mar 24, 2020

Engineers model mutations causing drug resistance

Whether it is a drug-resistant strain of bacteria, or cancer cells that no longer react to the drugs intended to kill them, diverse mutations make cells resistant to chemicals, and "second generation" approaches are needed. Now, a team of Penn State engineers may have a way to predict which mutations will occur in people, creating an easier path to create effective pharmaceuticals.

Full Article