Description of Research Expertise

The Herlyn laboratory at The Wistar Institute focuses on the biology that underlies melanoma. His efforts have pioneered the use of the three-dimensional “artificial skin” cultures to study the behavior of both tumor and normal cells that sustain tumor growth, a system known as the tumor microenvironment. The Herlyn Laboratory has transformed the scientific understanding of stem cells as they relate to cancer, and their work on the networks of signaling pathways in melanoma has formed the basis of numerous therapies now in clinical trials or very recently approved.