Led by Dr. Jacob Cawley, the mission of the Cancer Plasticity and Phenotypic Modeling Lab is to revolutionize cancer precision medicine through the development of biomarkers and therapies targeting cancer gene regulation.
This team focuses on developing new model systems to understand how cancer cells collectively form tissue for the rapid development of novel cancer treatments. Cancer is a disease of aberrant tissue development. For years, cancer has often been looked at as chaotic. Dr. Cawley’s research seeks to define cancer and find ways to weed through the chaos, giving a new way to fight this disease with precision and purpose. With this mission, he aims to break the purposeful mechanisms that enable cancer cells to grow and spread – turning the chaos into order. In doing so, he hopes to deliver new diagnostic tools and treatments for all species suffering from cancer.
Dr. Cawley’s current research is focused on hemangiosarcoma, used as a model for building this new pathway to treat this disease in a systematic way. The goal is to broadly apply this method to all cancers in all species in the future.
Leaning into Developmental Biology
Cancer research is often centrally focused on the genome, yet many other biological principles contribute to how cells interact within a tissue. Cells are capable of immense plasticity—adaptive mechanisms that enable cells to change which genes are active in response to stimuli. Cellular plasticity is essential for the normal development of tissue, wound healing, and everyday life! Dr. Cawley believes that by understanding cancer plasticity, he will be able to shed light on more precise methods for treating aggressive cancers.
Delivering Curative Outcomes for Hemangiosarcoma
Hemangiosarcoma is one of the most aggressive cancers of dogs, and a rare but equally lethal cancer in people (termed angiosarcoma). Dr. Cawley is leveraging the robust knowledge surrounding angiogenesis and blood vessel development to inform his investigation of hemangiosarcoma-specific plasticity. Through this new knowledge, he seeks to reroute the way hemangiosarcoma grows and prevent catastrophic bleeding events.
About Dr. Cawley
Dr. Cawley attended veterinary school at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine after majoring in Biology at Marist College. While training as a veterinarian, he spent a year studying cancer biology as part of the Medical Research Scholars Program at the National Institutes of Health. He completed a small animal rotating internship at Cornell University, followed by a residency in medical oncology at Colorado State University. He then took a fellowship position with Ethos Discovery, where he designed and helped launch the Ethos PUSH clinical trial for dogs with splenic hemangiosarcoma. During this time, he was jointly trained in cancer epigenetics as a postdoctoral fellow at Case Western Reserve University.
About Kelly Garvin
Kelly Garvin graduated from Colorado State University in 2025 with a PSM in Zoo, Aquarium, and Animal Shelter Management. As a graduate student, her capstone research consisted of testing different forms of environmental enrichment for laboratory zebrafish and measuring stress through cortisol levels. With her background and interest in biology and animals, she’s motivated to better understand cancer and work towards a cure.
In her free time, Kelly enjoys reading, traveling, watching sports, and spending time with her family.
About Olivia Garvin
Olivia Garvin graduated from Colorado State University in 2025 with a BS in Biological Sciences and minors in Statistics and Chemistry. During her time as an undergraduate, she was involved in research pertaining to crustacean molting physiology and completed her honors thesis project on the examination and characterization of a specific receptor involved in the crustacean molt cycle using bioinformatics and phylogenetics. She is currently taking a gap year and gaining more research experience in Dr. Cawley‘s lab while she applies to Biomedical Science PhD programs. In her free time, Olivia enjoys skiing, wake surfing, reading, watching sports, and spending time with family and friends.
Lab Members
Lab Manager
Research Technician