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 8/29/2025

    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 Aug 29. PMID: 40882022.

    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

  • Published 1/17/2025

    Reinecke JB, Jimenez Garcia L, Gross AC, Cam M, Cannon MV, Gust MJ, Sheridan JP, Gryder BE, Dries R, Roberts RD. Aberrant Activation of Wound-Healing Programs within the Metastatic Niche Facilitates Lung Colonization by Osteosarcoma Cells. Clin Cancer Res. 2025 Jan 17; 31(2):414-429. PMID: 39540841.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 8/1/2024

    Sarfraz I, Wang Y, Shastry A, Teh WK, Sokolov A, Herb BR, Creasy HH, Virshup I, Dries R, Degatano K, Mahurkar A, Schnell DJ, Madrigal P, Hilton J, Gehlenborg N, Tickle T, Campbell JD. MAMS: matrix and analysis metadata standards to facilitate harmonization and reproducibility of single-cell data. Genome Biol. 2024 Aug 01; 25(1):205. PMID: 39090672.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/23/2024

    Volegova MP, Brown LE, Banerjee U, Dries R, Sharma B, Kennedy A, Porco JA, George RE. The MYCN 5' UTR as a therapeutic target in neuroblastoma. Cell Rep. 2024 May 28; 43(5):114134. PMID: 38662542.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 39 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 Faculty (Primary Mentor of Grad 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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