Virginia Urquidi, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator
Tumor Metastasis Laboratory

Lab Members
Steve Goodison, PhD       Co-Investigator
C.J. Rosser, MD       Co-Investigator
Maria Pino, PhD       Postdoctoral Scientist
Bongyong Lee, PhD       Postdoctoral Scientist

Contact

Biography

Dr. Urquidi did her MSc and PhD studies on the molecular biology of RNA viruses. After completing her PhD at the University of Oxford she did her postdoctoral training in mechanisms of insulin secretion at Oxford University’s Department of Clinical Biochemistry.

Her research has more recently focused on the study of mechanisms of cancer metastasis since she joined the Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego and subsequently at the University of Florida, prior to joining the Cancer Research Institute at MD Anderson Cancer Center Orlando. In addition to her research endeavors, her efforts have also been devoted to teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and clinical residents. Dr. Urquidi also holds a faculty appointment at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine.

Research Summary

Dr Urquidi’s research interests are primarily cancer research, and include molecular pathology, the function of specific genes in the metastatic spread of cancer, and biomarker discovery and development for clinical diagnosis and prognosis.

Ongoing research projects include the elucidation of mechanisms of metastasis as a basis for the development of new and better approaches to the prevention and treatment of metastases in breast and other cancer types. This is achieved through derivation of models, application of proteomic and genomic molecular profiling techniques, and functional analysis of genes with the potential to alter the metastatic propensity of breast and prostate cancer cells.

Additional interests include developing tools for the early detection of bladder cancer, and for the individualized assessment of prognosis for treated cancer patients.

Labs:

Research Summary
Our lab conducts translational research that focuses on GI malignancies. One primary focus of our lab is how cancers become resistant to chemotherapies. We are currently investigating colon and pancreatic cancer.

Selected Publications

Urquidi V, Rosser CJ, Goodison S: Molecular Diagnostic Trends in Urological Cancer: Biomarkers for Non-Invasive Diagnosis. Curr Med Chem 2012, (In Press).

Urquidi V, Kim J, Goodison S, Chang M, Dai Y, Rosser CJ: VEGF, CA9 and Angiogenin as Urinary Biomarkers for Bladder Cancer Detection. Urology 2012, (In Press).

Sun Y, Urquidi V, Goodison S: Derivation of molecular signatures for breast cancer recurrence prediction using a two-way validation approach. Breast Cancer Res Treat 2010, 119:593-599.

Goodison S, Sun Y, Urquidi V: Derivation of cancer diagnostic and prognostic signatures from gene expression data. Bioanalysis 2010, 2:855-862.

Sakai Y, Goodison S, Cao W, Urquidi V, Namiki K, Porvasnik S, Urbanek C, Rosser CJ: VEGF induces expression of Bcl-2 and multiple signaling factors in microvascular endothelial cells in a prostate cancer model. World J Urol 2009, 27:659-666.

Goodison S, Rosser CJ, Urquidi V: Urinary proteomic profiling for diagnostic bladder cancer biomarkers. Expert Rev Proteomics 2009, 6:507-514.

Goodison S, Urquidi V: Breast tumor metastasis: analysis via proteomic profiling. Expert Rev Proteomics 2008, 5:457-467.

Urquidi V, Goodison S: Genomic signatures of breast cancer metastasis. Cytogenet Genome Res 2007, 118:116-129.

Kreunin P, Zhao J, Rosser C, Urquidi V, Lubman DM, Goodison S: Bladder cancer associated glycoprotein signatures revealed by urinary proteomic profiling. J Proteome Res 2007, 6:2631-2639.

Kreunin P, Yoo C, Urquidi V, Lubman DM, Goodison S: Proteomic profiling identifies breast tumor metastasis-associated factors in an isogenic model. Proteomics 2007, 7:299-312.

Kreunin P, Yoo C, Urquidi V, Lubman DM, Goodison S: Differential expression of ribosomal proteins in a human metastasis model identified by coupling 2-D liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. Cancer Genomics Proteomics 2007, 4:329-339.

Goodison S, Yuan J, Sloan D, Kim R, Li C, Popescu NC, Urquidi V: The RhoGAP protein DLC-1 functions as a metastasis suppressor in breast cancer cells. Cancer Res 2005, 65:6042-6053.

Goodison S, Viars C, Urquidi V: Molecular cytogenetic analysis of a human breast metastasis model: identification of phenotype-specific chromosomal rearrangements. Cancer Genet Cytogenet 2005, 156:37-48.

Sloan DD, Nicholson B, Urquidi V, Goodison S: Detection of differentially expressed genes in an isogenic breast metastasis model using RNA arbitrarily primed-polymerase chain reaction coupled with array hybridization (RAP-array). Am J Pathol 2004, 164:315-323.

Kreunin P, Urquidi V, Lubman DM, Goodison S: Identification of metastasis-associated proteins in a human tumor metastasis model using the mass-mapping technique. Proteomics 2004, 4:2754-2765.

Ma H, Urquidi V, Wong J, Kleeman J, Goodison S: Telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter regulation during myogenic differentiation of human RD rhabdomyosarcoma cells. Mol Cancer Res 2003, 1:739-746.

Goodison S, Viars C, Grazzini M, Urquidi V: The interrelationship between DRIM gene expression and cytogenetic and phenotypic characteristics in human breast tumor cell lines. BMC Genomics 2003, 4:39.

Goodison S, Kawai K, Hihara J, Jiang P, Yang M, Urquidi V, Hoffman RM, Tarin D: Prolonged dormancy and site-specific growth potential of cancer cells spontaneously disseminated from nonmetastatic breast tumors as revealed by labeling with green fluorescent protein. Clin Cancer Res 2003, 9:3808-3814.

Agarwal D, Goodison S, Nicholson B, Tarin D, Urquidi V: Expression of matrix metalloproteinase 8 (MMP-8) and tyrosinase-related protein-1 (TYRP-1) correlates with the absence of metastasis in an isogenic human breast cancer model. Differentiation 2003, 71:114-125.

Urquidi V, Tarin D: Tumor Metastasis. In Textbook of Medicine. Edited by Warrell DA, Cox TM, Firth JD, Benz EJ. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2003

Urquidi V, Sloan D, Kawai K, Agarwal D, Woodman AC, Tarin D, Goodison S: Contrasting expression of thrombospondin-1 and osteopontin correlates with absence or presence of metastatic phenotype in an isogenic model of spontaneous human breast cancer metastasis. Clin Cancer Res 2002, 8:61-74.

Urquidi V, Tarin D, Goodison S: Role of telomerase in cell senescence and oncogenesis. Annu Rev Med 2000, 51:65-79.