Chris Cartwright, MD

Clinical Focus

• Ulcerative Colitis
• Crohn's Disease
• Cancer in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
• Gastroenterology

Administrative Appointments

• Director, Program for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Stanford University School of Medicine (1989 - present)

Honors and Awards

• Outstanding AGA Women in Science, American Gastroenterological Association (2008)
• Premier Physician Award, Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America - Greater Bay Area Chapter (2000)
• Member, American Society for Clinical Investigation (1995)

Professional Education

Postdoctoral Advisees

Gayathri Swaminathan

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Cancer Biology
• Medicine

Community & International Work

• Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 

Research Interests

Research in my laboratory focuses on molecular mechanisms of intestinal cell growth control. A primary focus is on function and regulation of the Src family of tyrosine kinases in normal cells, and their deregulation in cancer cells. Molecular, cellular and physiologic approaches are used to explore basic questions about growth regulation. Areas of active investigation include studies of Src function in cell cycle progression, proliferation, differentiation, adhesion, survival and malignant transformation; discovery of endogenous inhibitors of Src kinases; analysis of inhibitor function in cell growth control and apoptosis; and exploration of new drug therapy for colon cancer. Our recent discovery of a Src inhibitor, RACK1, which works both to inhibit growth (by suppressing Src activity at G1 and mitotic checkpoints) and to induce death of colon cells, could be exploited for development of new and more powerful and selective strategies for treatment of human colon cancer.

Publications

• Crohn's colitis complicated by cytomegalovirus infection. Levesque BG, Pai R, Cartwright CA. Dig Dis Sci. 2009; 54 (9): 1864-7
• A novel pro-apoptotic function of RACK1: suppression of Src activity in the intrinsic and Akt pathways. Mamidipudi V, Cartwright CA. Oncogene. 2009
• RACK1 inhibits colonic cell growth by regulating Src activity at cell cycle checkpoints. Mamidipudi V, Dhillon NK, Parman T, Miller LD, Lee KC, Cartwright CA. Oncogene. 2007; 26 (20): 2914-24
• Peptide modulators of Src activity in G1 regulate entry into S phase and proliferation of NIH 3T3 cells. Mamidipudi V, Miller LD, Mochly-Rosen D, Cartwright CA. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2007; 352 (2): 423-30
• Cytomegalovirus infection in steroid-refractory ulcerative colitis: a case-control study. Kambham N, Vij R, Cartwright CA, Longacre T. Am J Surg Pathol. 2004; 28 (3): 365-73