Ruben Dries, PhD

Assistant Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Ruben Dries, PhD combines computational data analysis with novel experimental approaches and technologies to understand basic biological concepts in health and disease. These insights could then be leveraged to target tumor specific processes or inhibit the development of treatment resistance. These interests grew dynamically throughout his research career. In his early studies Dr. Dries developed a systems biology approach to dissect the regulatory network of neural differentiating embryonic stem cells and used this knowledge at a later stage to understand how cancer cells transcriptionally respond to targeted therapies and other stress factors. More recently, he expanded this area by focusing on how cells can spatially communicate within their microenvironment and build tools to facilitate these type of analyses.


As a young and dynamic group his lab works together as a team in the following areas:

1) Establishing multi-cellular breast cancer models that better reflect spatial tumor heterogeneity

2) Building tools to explore and quantify cellular cross-talk

3) Assess the contribution of supporting cells to cancer cells within the breast tumor microenvironment

4) Document the gradual response to targeted therapy at the transcriptional and chromatin level in breast cancer cells

Publications

  • Published 1/15/2026

    Budhathoki Y, Cannon MV, McEachron TA, Patel AG, Gust MJ, Modiano JF, Ammons DT, Cronise KE, Macchietto MG, Sarver AL, Dries R, Gryder BE, Regan DP, Gardner HL, Roberts RD. Integrative Single-cell and Spatial Transcriptomic Analysis of Osteosarcoma Reveals Conserved and Distinct Ecosystems Across Sites and Species. bioRxiv. 2026 Jan 15. PMID: 41648517.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 11/14/2025

    Reinecke JB, Jimenez Garcia L, Saraf AJ, Hinckley J, Gross AC, Le Pommellet H, Gutpell KM, Cam M, Cannon MV, Gust MJ, Vatelle S, Gryder BE, Dries R, Roberts RD. Metastasis-Initiating Osteosarcoma Subpopulations Establish Paracrine Interactions with Lung and Tumor Cells to Create a Metastatic Niche. Cancer Res. 2025 Nov 14; 85(22):4341-4358. PMID: 40882022.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 10/1/2025

    Chen JG, Chávez-Fuentes JC, O'Brien M, Xu J, Ruiz EC, Wang W, Amin I, Sheridan JP, Shin SC, Hasyagar SV, Sarfraz I, Guckhool P, Sistig A, Jarzabek V, Yuan GC, Dries R. Giotto Suite: a multiscale and technology-agnostic spatial multiomics analysis ecosystem. Nat Methods. 2025 Oct; 22(10):2052-2064. PMID: 41034612.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 7/19/2025

    Arbesfeld-Qiu JM, Cho JW, Nguyen PTT, Lester NA, Su J, Guo JA, Hoffman H, Shiau C, Caldwell N, Muratani S, Galvan M, Proctor JE, Ely Z, Wang S, Ganci M, Dries R, Hong T, Wo J, Boland G, Fernandez-Del Castillo C, Ferrone C, Heaphy CM, Zhang ML, Mino-Kenudson M, Hemberg M, Hwang WL. Distinct malignant cell states and myeloid glutamate signaling associated with aggressive pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. bioRxiv. 2025 Jul 19. PMID: 40791359.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/23/2025

    Napoleon MA, Yang X, Zhang Y, Morrissey A, Krinsky S, Lazowski A, Bouchouari H, Brahim AM, Sellinger I, Edwards T, Jose A, Lotfolhzadeh S, Almiron R, Yin W, Siracuse JJ, Francis J, Lokau J, Garbers C, Del Carmen PM, Kolachalama VB, Dries R, Nazarian RM, Nigwekar SU, Chitalia VC. Activation and targetability of TYMP-IL-6-TF signaling in the skin microenvironment in uremic calciphylaxis. Sci Transl Med. 2025 Apr 23; 17(795):eadn5772. PMID: 40267216.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 42 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Other Positions

  • Assistant Professor, Medicine
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
  • Associate Member, Center for Regenerative Medicine
    Boston University
  • Graduate Medical Sciences Educator and Mentor (Primary Mentor of Graduate Students)
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Graduate Medical Sciences

Websites

Education

  • Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, PhD
  • Katholieke Univ Leuven, PhD
  • Katholieke Univ Leuven, MS
  • Katholieke Univ Leuven, BS

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