Ghassan (Gus) Mouneimne, PhD

Associate Professor, Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Associate Professor, Cancer Biology GIDP
Research Interests: 

Research in our laboratory is focused on understanding how aberrant structural organization of the cytoskeleton influences cellular behavior, such as cancer cell invasion and metastasis. The regulation of cellular behavior by structural remodeling of the cytoskeleton exemplifies the paradigm of “structure regulates function” at the cellular level. Our goal is to identify distinct actin cytoskeletal architectures that impact the response of cancer cells to well-known genetic and microenvironmental factors during cancer progression.

Molecular Medicine Grad Program: 
Yes

Bibliography

2025

Mouneimne, G., C. Connors, A. Watson, A. Grant, D. Campo, A. Ring, P. Kaur, and J. E. Lang, "Mechanical Conditioning (MeCo) Score Progressively Increases Through the Metastatic Cascade in Breast Cancer via Circulating Tumor Cells.", Cancers (Basel), vol. 17, issue 10, 2025 May 12. PMCID: PMC12109637  PMID: 40427129
Victor, R. A., J. J. Altemus, M. A. Lay, S. N. Shepherd, M. Padilla-Rodriguez, A. Lipinski, G. Mouneimne, P. R. Langlais, and J. C. Schwartz, "Global Profiling of Remodeled Subcellular Structures Due to Drug Treatment and Disease.", bioRxiv, 2025 Aug 31. PMCID: PMC12407933  PMID: 40909543

2024

Quintela-Fandino, M., B. Bermejo, E. Zamora, F. Moreno, J. Ángel Garcia-Saenz, S. Pernas, N. Martinez Jañez, D. Jiménez, E. Adrover, R. Andrés, et al., "High mechanical conditioning by tumor extracellular matrix stiffness is a predictive biomarker for anti-fibrotic therapy in HER2-negative breast cancer.", Clin Cancer Res, 2024 Sep 16. PMID: 39283720
Rice, P., M. Aitken, H. Shir, R. Cordova, J. Montague, D. Tran, U. Utzinger, L. Peng, G. Mouneimne, and J. Barton, "A domed window chamber for multi-modality optical imaging.", Biotechniques, vol. 76, issue 11, pp. 535-545, 2024 Nov. PMID: 39743842
Arumugam, M., E. A. Tovar, C. J. Essenburg, P. S. Dischinger, I. Beddows, E. Wolfrum, Z. B. Madaj, L. Turner, K. Feenstra, K. L. Gallik, et al., "deficiency modulates the stromal environment in the pretumorigenic rat mammary gland.", Front Cell Dev Biol, vol. 12, pp. 1375441, 2024. PMCID: PMC11116614  PMID: 38799507

2023

Parker, S. S., K. Tran Ly, A. D. Grant, J. Sweetland, A. M. Wang, J. D. Parker, M. R. Roman, K. Saboda, D. J. Roe, M. Padi, et al., "EVL and MIM/MTSS1 regulate actin cytoskeletal remodeling to promote dendritic filopodia in neurons.", J Cell Biol, vol. 222, issue 5, 2023 May 01. PMCID: PMC9998662  PMID: 36828364
Collins, S. E., M. E. Wiegand, A. N. Werner, I. N. Brown, M. I. Mundo, D. J. Swango, G. Mouneimne, and P. G. Charest, "Ras-mediated activation of mTORC2 promotes breast epithelial cell migration and invasion.", Mol Biol Cell, vol. 34, issue 2, pp. ar9, 2023 Feb 01. PMCID: PMC9930525  PMID: 36542482
Jensen, C. C., A. N. Clements, H. Liou, L. E. Ball, J. R. Bethard, P. R. Langlais, R. K. Toth, S. S. Chauhan, A. L. Casillas, S. R. Daulat, et al., "PIM1 phosphorylates ABI2 to enhance actin dynamics and promote tumor invasion.", J Cell Biol, vol. 222, issue 6, 2023 Jun 05. PMCID: PMC10103708  PMID: 37042842

2022

Hill, S. M., M. Padilla-Rodriguez, A. Clements, J. A. Sweetland, S. S. Parker, N. A. Warfel, and G. Mouneimne, "Optimized in vitro three-dimensional invasion assay for quantifying a wide range of cancer cell invasive behavior.", STAR Protoc, vol. 3, issue 3, pp. 101516, 2022 Sep 16. PMCID: PMC9256944  PMID: 35780429
Hwang, T., S. S. Parker, S. M. Hill, R. A. Grant, M. W. Ilunga, V. Sivaraman, G. Mouneimne, and A. E. Keating, "Native proline-rich motifs exploit sequence context to target actin-remodeling Ena/VASP protein ENAH.", Elife, vol. 11, 2022 Jan 25. PMCID: PMC8789275  PMID: 35076015
Kwak, E-A., C. C. Pan, A. Ramonett, S. Kumar, P. Cruz-Flores, T. Ahmed, H. R. Ortiz, J. J. Lochhead, N. A. Ellis, G. Mouneimne, et al., "β-spectrin as a stalk cell-intrinsic regulator of VEGF signaling.", Nat Commun, vol. 13, issue 1, pp. 1326, 2022 Mar 14. PMCID: PMC8921520  PMID: 35288568

2021

Watson, A. W., A. D. Grant, S. S. Parker, S. Hill, M. B. Whalen, J. Chakrabarti, M. W. Harman, M. R. Roman, B. L. Forte, C. C. Gowan, et al., "Breast tumor stiffness instructs bone metastasis via maintenance of mechanical conditioning.", Cell Rep, vol. 35, issue 13, pp. 109293, 2021 Jun 29. PMID: 34192535
Hwang, T., S. S. Parker, S. M. Hill, M. W. Ilunga, R. A. Grant, G. Mouneimne, and A. E. Keating, "A distributed residue network permits conformational binding specificity in a conserved family of actin remodelers.", Elife, vol. 10, 2021 Dec 02. PMCID: PMC8639148  PMID: 34854809
Bearss, J. J., S. Kr Padi, N. Singh, M. Cardo-Vila, J. H. Song, G. Mouneimne, N. Fernandes, Y. Li, M. R. Harter, J. Mc Gard, et al., "EDC3 phosphorylation regulates growth and invasion through controlling P-body formation and dynamics.", EMBO Rep, vol. 22, issue 4, pp. e50835, 2021 Apr 07. PMCID: PMC8025014  PMID: 33586867

2020

Saini, H., K. Rahmani Eliato, J. Veldhuizen, A. Zare, M. Allam, C. Silva, A. Kratz, D. Truong, G. Mouneimne, J. LaBaer, et al., "The role of tumor-stroma interactions on desmoplasia and tumorigenicity within a microengineered 3D platform.", Biomaterials, vol. 247, pp. 119975, 2020 Jul. PMID: 32278213
Merad, M., A. D. Posey, O. Olivero, P. K. Singh, G. Mouneimne, L. Li, LS. M. Wallace, and T. K. Hayes, "Diversity Is a Strength of Cancer Research in the U.S.", Cancer Cell, vol. 38, issue 3, pp. 297-300, 2020 Sep 14. PMCID: PMC7489360  PMID: 32931736

2019

Truong, D. D., A. Kratz, J. G. Park, E. S. Barrientos, H. Saini, T. Nguyen, B. Pockaj, G. Mouneimne, J. LaBaer, and M. Nikkhah, "A Human Organotypic Microfluidic Tumor Model Permits Investigation of the Interplay between Patient-Derived Fibroblasts and Breast Cancer Cells.", Cancer Res, vol. 79, issue 12, pp. 3139-3151, 2019 06 15. PMCID: PMC6664809  PMID: 30992322
Parker, S. S., J. Krantz, E-A. Kwak, N. K. Barker, C. G. Deer, N. Y. Lee, G. Mouneimne, and P. R. Langlais, "Insulin Induces Microtubule Stabilization and Regulates the Microtubule Plus-end Tracking Protein Network in Adipocytes.", Mol Cell Proteomics, vol. 18, issue 7, pp. 1363-1381, 2019 07 01. PMCID: PMC6601206  PMID: 31018989
Puleo, J. I., S. S. Parker, M. R. Roman, A. W. Watson, K. Rahmani Eliato, L. Peng, K. Saboda, D. J. Roe, R. Ros, F. B. Gertler, et al., "Mechanosensing during directed cell migration requires dynamic actin polymerization at focal adhesions.", J Cell Biol, vol. 218, issue 12, pp. 4215-4235, 2019 12 02. PMID: 31594807

2018

Saini, H., K. Rahmani Eliato, C. Silva, M. Allam, G. Mouneimne, R. Ros, and M. Nikkhah, "The Role of Desmoplasia and Stromal Fibroblasts on Anti-cancer Drug Resistance in a Microengineered Tumor Model.", Cell Mol Bioeng, vol. 11, issue 5, pp. 419-433, 2018 Oct. PMCID: PMC6816733  PMID: 31719892
Nagaraju, S., D. Truong, G. Mouneimne, and M. Nikkhah, "Microfluidic Tumor-Vascular Model to Study Breast Cancer Cell Invasion and Intravasation.", Adv Healthc Mater, vol. 7, issue 9, pp. e1701257, 2018 05. PMID: 29334196
Padilla-Rodriguez, M., S. S. Parker, D. G. Adams, T. Westerling, J. I. Puleo, A. W. Watson, S. M. Hill, M. Noon, R. Gaudin, J. Aaron, et al., "The actin cytoskeletal architecture of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer cells suppresses invasion.", Nat Commun, vol. 9, issue 1, pp. 2980, 2018 07 30. PMCID: PMC6065369  PMID: 30061623
Parker, S. S., A. Moutal, S. Cai, S. Chandrasekaran, M. R. Roman, A. A. Koshy, R. Khanna, K. E. Zinsmaier, and G. Mouneimne, "High Fidelity Cryopreservation and Recovery of Primary Rodent Cortical Neurons.", eNeuro, vol. 5, issue 5, 2018 Sep-Oct. PMCID: PMC6158653  PMID: 30263951

2017

Peela, N., E. S. Barrientos, D. Truong, G. Mouneimne, and M. Nikkhah, "Effect of suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) on breast cancer cells within a tumor-stroma microfluidic model.", Integr Biol (Camb), vol. 9, issue 12, pp. 988-999, 2017 Dec 11. PMID: 29188843

2016

Truong, D., J. Puleo, A. Llave, G. Mouneimne, R. D. Kamm, and M. Nikkhah, "Breast Cancer Cell Invasion into a Three Dimensional Tumor-Stroma Microenvironment.", Sci Rep, vol. 6, pp. 34094, 2016 Sep 28. PMCID: PMC5039718  PMID: 27678304
Carmona, G., U. Perera, C. Gillett, A. Naba, A-L. Law, V. P. Sharma, J. Wang, J. Wyckoff, M. Balsamo, F. Mosis, et al., "Lamellipodin promotes invasive 3D cancer cell migration via regulated interactions with Ena/VASP and SCAR/WAVE.", Oncogene, 2016 Mar 21. PMID: 26996666
Peela, N., F. S. Sam, W. Christenson, D. Truong, A. W. Watson, G. Mouneimne, R. Ros, and M. Nikkhah, "A three dimensional micropatterned tumor model for breast cancer cell migration studies.", Biomaterials, vol. 81, pp. 72-83, 2016 Mar. PMID: 26724455

2012

Mouneimne, G., S. D. Hansen, L. M. Selfors, L. Petrak, M. M. Hickey, L. L. Gallegos, K. J. Simpson, J. Lim, F. B. Gertler, J. H. Hartwig, et al., "Differential remodeling of actin cytoskeleton architecture by profilin isoforms leads to distinct effects on cell migration and invasion.", Cancer Cell, vol. 22, issue 5, pp. 615-30, 2012 Nov 13. PMCID: PMC3500527  PMID: 23153535
Hager, M. H., S. Morley, D. R. Bielenberg, S. Gao, M. Morello, I. N. Holcomb, W. Liu, G. Mouneimne, F. Demichelis, J. Kim, et al., "DIAPH3 governs the cellular transition to the amoeboid tumour phenotype.", EMBO Mol Med, vol. 4, issue 8, pp. 743-60, 2012 Aug. PMCID: PMC3494074  PMID: 22593025

2011

Kim, J. Hoon, A. Cho, H. Yin, D. A. Schafer, G. Mouneimne, K. J. Simpson, K-V. Nguyen, J. S. Brugge, and D. J. Montell, "Psidin, a conserved protein that regulates protrusion dynamics and cell migration.", Genes Dev, vol. 25, issue 7, pp. 730-41, 2011 Apr 1. PMCID: PMC3070935  PMID: 21406550