Sun Exposure = Mutations!
Remember to pack your sunscreen
Three paths to melanoma
The evolution to melanoma depends on the order in which pathogenic mutations accumulate.

Figure adapted from our 2020 Nature manuscript.
Evolution of cutaneous melanoma
The mutational landscapes of melanocytic neoplasms as they progress from the benign to the malignant state.

Figure adapted from: Shain et. al. NEJM (2015); Shain and Bastian, Nat Rev Cancer (2016)
Molecular effects of indoor tanning
High proportion of melanocytes in tanning bed users have pathogenic mutations, increasing risk of melanoma, particularly over body sites with low cumulative sun damage.

Figure adapted from Gerami and Tandukar et. al. bioRxiv, 2024
Evolution of cSCC
A summary of key events during the evolution of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

Figure adapted from Tandukar and Deivendran et. al. bioRxiv, 2024
Pathways disrupted
Signaling pathways become disrupted in a stereotypical fashion during the progression of cutaneous melanoma.

Figured adapted from Shain et. al. Cancer Cell 2018.
Evolution of uveal melanoma
The metastatic progression of melanomas originating in the eye.

Figure adapted from Shain et. al. Nature Genetics, 2019.
Genes involved in melanoma
A curated list of genes with pathogenic mutation in melanoma.

Figure adapted from Zeng, Judson-Torres, and Shain, JID, 2020.
Genes under selection in cSCC
A curated list of genes with pathogenic mutations in cSCC.

Figure adapted from our 2021 npj Genomic Medicine paper.
Visualizing somatic mutations in skin cancer
Somatic mutations are detectable in spatial transcriptomic data. Here, we mark spots with somatic point mutations in a cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma biopsy.

Figure adapted from our 2023 Genome Biology manuscript

The Shain laboratory is located in the Department of Dermatology at the University of California San Francisco. We are always hiring at all levels of training. Please contact Hunter Shain to express interest or for more details ([email protected]).

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The overarching goal of the Shain laboratory is to better understand the biology of skin cancer. We use a variety of -omic approaches to delineate the genetic and transcriptomic alterations in melanocytes, keratinocytes, melanomas, and keratinocyte cancers. We routinely perform single-cell based studies (both DNA- and RNA- single-cell sequencing) as well as spatial transcriptomic studies. We also lead one of the research centers in the Human Tumor Atlas Network (HTAN). For more details related to ongoing projects, please reach out to the PI (Hunter Shain at [email protected]).