Devon A Lawson

Devon A. Lawson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine. His research focuses on unraveling the cellular and molecular mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis using single-cell genomic and spatial technologies.

• Key areas: Single-cell genomics, cancer metabolism, immune control of metastasis, Human Breast Cell Atlas (HBCA) project.

The featured 2023 Nature publication highlights his work on constructing a comprehensive Human Breast Cell Atlas (HBCA) with single-cell and spatial resolution, revealing cellular heterogeneity and non-epithelial populations in breast tissue. This study provides a reference for mammary biology and disease research.

Grants include NIH funding (HL116657, CA180039, CA136717, CA190511, CA181490, CA108462, CA057621) and Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative support for the HBCA project. His lab employs patient-derived xenograft models and FACS assays to study metastatic stem-like cells and their role in tumor progression.