Alexander Cicala
Education:
B.S. University of Wisconsin, Madison (2020)
Current Position:
3rd Year MSTP
1st Year Graduate Student
Advisor:
Peter Westcott
Graduate Program:
Genetics
Research Interests:
My research focuses on understanding mechanisms of how pre-cancerous benign colorectal lesions transition to malignant disease states. This includes characterizing the interaction of cancer-related genetic aberrations with the immune system, intestinal microbiome, stem cell plasticity, and environmental contaminants using both in vitro organoid and in vivo mouse models developed by myself and/or other members of the Westcott Lab.
Publications:
Papadas A, Lagal DJ, Dou Y, Hong D, Gibbons A, Cicala A, Huang Y, Zomalan B, Molina E, Asimakopoulos F. Protocol to identify and isolate rare murine tumor-resident dendritic cell populations for low-inputtranscriptomic profiling. STAR Protoc. 2024 Aug 1;5(3):103195. doi: 10.1016/j.xpro.2024.103195. Epubahead of print. PMID: 39096495.
Papadas A, Huang Y, Cicala A, Dou Y, Fields M, Gibbons A, Hong D, Lagal DJ, Quintana V, Rizo A, Zomalan B, Asimakopoulos F. Emerging roles for tumor stroma in anti gen presentation and anti -cancer immunity. Biochem Soc Trans. 2023 Nov 30:BST20221083. doi: 10.1042/BST20221083. Epub ahead of print. PMID:38031753.
Deb G, Cicala A, Papadas A, Asimakopoulos F. Matrix Proteoglycans in Tumor Inflammation and Immunity. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 2022 Jul 25. doi: 10.1152/ajpcell.00023.2022. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35876288.
Papadas A, Cicala A, Kraus S G., Arouz G, Deb G, Tong A, Deming D, Asimakopoulos F. (2022). Versican in Tumor Progression, Tumor–Host Interactions, and Cancer Immunotherapy. In: Kovalszky, I., Franchi, M., Alaniz, L.D. (eds) The Extracellular Matrix and the Tumor Microenvironment. Biology of Extracellular Matrix, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-
Athanasios Papadas, Gauri Deb, Alexander Cicala, Adam Officer, Chelsea Hope, Adam Pagenkopf, Evan Flietner, Zachary T. Morrow, Philip Emmerich, Joshua Wiesner, Garrett Arauz, Varun Bansal, Karla Esbona, Christian M. Capitini, Kristina A. Matkowskyj, Dustin A. Deming, Katerina Politi, Scott I. Abrams, Olivier Harismendy, Fotis Asimakopoulos. Stromal remodeling regulates dendritic cell abundance and activity in the tumor microenvironment. Cell Reports. Volume 40, Issue 7, 2022, 111201, ISSN 2211-1247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
Wen Z, Rajagopalan A, Flietner ED, Yun G, Chesi M, Furumo Q, Burns RT, Papadas A, Ranheim EA, Pagenkopf AC, Morrow ZT, Finn R, Zhou Y, Li S, You X, Jensen J, Yu M, Cicala A, Menting J, Mitsiades CS, Callander NS, Bergsagel PL, Wang D, Asimakopoulos F, Zhang J. Expression of NrasQ61R and MYC transgene in germinal center B cells induces a highly malignant multiple myeloma in mice. Blood. 2021 Jan 7;137(1):61-74. doi: 10.1182/blood.2020007156. PMID: 32640012; PMCID: PMC7808014.
Papadas A, Arauz G, Cicala A, Wiesner J, Asimakopoulos F. Versican and Versican-matrikines in Cancer Progression, Inflammation, and Immunity. J Histochem Cytochem. 2020 Dec;68(12):871-885. doi: 10.1369/0022155420937098. Epub 2020 Jul 6. PMID: 32623942; PMCID: PMC7711242.
Conference Posters/Presentations:
Yihan Qin, Daniel Zhang, Nikita Persaud, Nischal Bhandari, Zakeria Aminzada, Colin McLaughlin, Song Han, Alex Liu, Rodrigo Romero, Santiago Naranjo, Claire Regan, William Rideout III, Alexander Cicala, Karen Yee, Jonathan Preall, Semir Beyaz, Sepideh Gholami, Zhen Zhao, Tyler Jacks, Peter M Westcott. Abstract LB475: Capture the early benign-to-malignant transition of colon cancer in the mouse. Cancer Res 25 April 2025; 85 (8_Supplement 2): LB475-LB475 https://doi.org/10.1158/1538-7445.AM2025-LB475
Daniel Lagal, Duncan Hong, Athanasios Papadas, Alicia Gibbons, Yun Huang, Yaling Dou, Alexander Cicala, Elsa Molina, Kristina Matkowskyj, Dustin Deming, Fotis Asimakopoulos. Stromal remodeling promotes immune triad formation in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Cancer Res 21 April 2025; 85 (8_Supplement 1): 2588-2588 https://doi.org/10.1158/1538-7445.AM2025-2588
S Gholami, E Gazzara, JM Adrover, A Lui, A Cicala, S Han, Z Aminzada, AC Chung, C Devoe, H Huang, G Vitiello, D DePeralta, M Weiss, S Beyaz, E Lou, A Grothey, D Tuveson, P Westcott, M Egeblad. Targeting neutrophil extracellular traps to overcome therapeutic resistance in colorectal cancer. HPB 2025. Volume 27, Supplement 1, S11
Athanasios Papadas, Duncan Hong, Alexander Cicala, Alicia Gibbons, Daniel J Lagal, Yun Huang, Yaling Dou, Fotis Asimakopoulos. Stromal remodeling danger signals regulate “second-touch” antigenic encounters and promote CD8+ T cell effector differentiation in the TME. Cancer Res 22 March 2024; 84 (6_Supplement): 4210-4210 https://doi.org/10.1158/1538-7445.AM2024-4210
Papadas A, Cicala A, Rizo A, et al 981 Peritumoral stromal remodeling licenses cDC1 through CD40 to elicit T-cell inflammation. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2022;10:doi: 10.1136/jitc-2022-SITC2022.0981
Papadas, A., Deb, G., Officer, A., Hope, C., Emmerich, P., Cicala, A., Wiesner J, Arauz G, Pagenkopf A, Matkowskyj K, Deming D, Politi K, Abrams S I., Harismendy O, and Asimakopoulos, F. (2021). 936 Stromal remodeling regulates dendritic cell abundance in the tumor microenvironment. Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer, 9, A982. doi:https://doi.org/10.1136/
Papadas A, Flietner E, Morrow Z, Wiesner J, Cicala A, Pagenkopf A, Hope C, Rajagopalan A, Wen Z, Emmerich P, Deming DA, Miyamoto S, Hematti P, Callander N, Rakhmilevich AL, Otto M, Capitini CM, Zhang J and Asimakopoulos F; Abstract 5733: Versican proteolytic fragments (matrikines) synergize with STING agonists to elicit robust anti-tumor CD8+ T cell responses. Cancer Res 15 August 2020; 80 (16_Supplement): 5733. https://doi.org/10.1158/
Papadas A, Flietner E, Morrow Z, Wiesner J, Cicala A, Pagenkopf A, Hope C L., Rajagopalan A, Wen Z, Emmerich P, Deming D, Miyamoto S, Hematti P, Callander N S., Rakhmilevich A, Otto M, Capitini C M., Zhang J and Asimakopoulos F. Versican Proteolytic Fragments (Matrikines) Regulate the Intratumoral Dendritic Cell Milieu In Vivo: Implications for in Situ Tumor Vaccination. Blood. Volume 134, Supplement 1, 2019. Page 1210. ISSN 0006-4971, https://doi.org/10.
Papadas A, Flietner E, Morrow Z, Wiesner J, Cicala A, Pagenkopf A, Hope C L., Rajagopalan A, Wen Z, Emmerich P, Deming D, Miyamoto S, Hematti P, Callander N S., Rakhmilevich A, Otto M, Capitini C M., Zhang J and Asimakopoulos F. Reconstructing the Clonal and Mutational Architecture of Myeloma through Avian Leukosis Virus (ALV)-Mediated Genome Editing. Blood. Volume 132, Supplement 1, 2018. Page 4480. ISSN 0006-4971,https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-
