Roarke Kamber, PhD
Assistant Professor
Anatomy
School of Medicine

To this end, my research encompasses questions in immunology and cancer biology, and leverages a wide range of experimental approaches including genome-wide CRISPR screens, live-cell imaging, biochemical reconstitution, and animal models. We aim to systematically map the inter-cellular signaling axes between macrophages and their target cells that govern phagocytosis, with a particular focus on defining the roles of uncharacterized genes and metabolites in this process. These discovery-based efforts will allow us to understand how macrophages make the all-or-none decision to destroy another cell, to characterize pathological failure modes, and to engineer innate immune cells with enhanced therapeutic properties. The ultimate goal of my research program is to uncover fundamental biological insights that enable next-generation immunotherapies for currently untreatable diseases.

• A genome-wide atlas of co-essential modules assigns function to uncharacterized genes.
  Nature genetics 2021 Wainberg M, Kamber RA, Balsubramani A, Meyers RM, Sinnott-Armstrong N, Hornburg D, Jiang L, Chan J, Jian R, Gu M, Shcherbina A, Dubreuil MM, Spees K, Meuleman W, Snyder MP, Bassik MC, Kundaje A
• CRISPR screens in cancer spheroids identify 3D growth-specific vulnerabilities.
  Nature 2020 Han K, Pierce SE, Li A, Spees K, Anderson GR, Seoane JA, Lo YH, Dubreuil M, Olivas M, Kamber RA, Wainberg M, Kostyrko K, Kelly MR, Yousefi M, Simpkins SW, Yao D, Lee K, Kuo CJ, Jackson PK, Sweet-…
• Identification of phagocytosis regulators using magnetic genome-wide CRISPR screens.
  Nature genetics 2018 Haney MS, Bohlen CJ, Morgens DW, Ousey JA, Barkal AA, Tsui CK, Ego BK, Levin R, Kamber RA, Collins H, Tucker A, Li A, Vorselen D, Labitigan L, Crane E, Boyle E, Jiang L, Chan J, Rincón E, Greenleaf WJ…
• The AAA protein Msp1 mediates clearance of excess tail-anchored proteins from the peroxisomal membrane.
  eLife 2017 Weir NR, Kamber RA, Martenson JS, Denic V
• A pathway of targeted autophagy is induced by DNA damage in budding yeast.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2017 Eapen VV, Waterman DP, Bernard A, Schiffmann N, Sayas E, Kamber R, Lemos B, Memisoglu G, Ang J, Mazella A, Chuartzman SG, Loewith RJ, Schuldiner M, Denic V, Klionsky DJ, Haber JE
• A molecular switch for selective autophagosome formation.
  Autophagy 2015 Kamber RA, Shoemaker CJ, Denic V
• Receptor-Bound Targets of Selective Autophagy Use a Scaffold Protein to Activate the Atg1 Kinase.
  Molecular cell 2015 Kamber RA, Shoemaker CJ, Denic V
• Mapping loci associated with tail color and sex determination in the short-lived fish Nothobranchius furzeri.
  Genetics 2009 Valenzano DR, Kirschner J, Kamber RA, Zhang E, Weber D, Cellerino A, Englert C, Platzer M, Reichwald K, Brunet A