Research Interests
The research in the Goldstein laboratory is focused on the intersection between cancer biology, stem cell biology and metabolism. During his graduate work, Dr. Goldstein described the isolation of epithelial progenitor cells from mouse and human prostate tissue and demonstrated the capacity of progenitor cells to initiate prostate cancer in response to oncogenic transformation. Following up on this work, Dr. Goldstein and colleagues determined that prostate cancer can evolve from a basal cell of origin to a luminal-like tumor-propagating cell population. More recently, the Goldstein laboratory has been investigating the interplay between inflammation, epithelial progenitor cells, and tumorigenesis, using a combination of mouse and human tissue models. The main goals of the lab are to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms promoting epithelial cancer initiation, progression and resistance to treatment.