Co-Founders

Based upon the recent discovery of conditional reprogramming by Drs. Richard Schlegel and Xuefeng Liu, Drs. Richard Schlegel and Christopher Albanese co-founded the Center for Cell Reprogramming (CCR) in 2013. The CCR is currently the only academic center in the world that focuses on stem-like cells that are generated by conditional reprogramming.

Dr. Albanese also serves as the Director of Urogenital Program, one of the cancer-focused programs in the center, his main focus is the development of more accurate and effective in vitro and in vivo cancer models to better define the roles of oncogenes, tumor suppressors and cell cycle regulatory proteins in the initiation and progression of genitourinary and other cancers. 

The applications of conditional reprogramming are far-ranging and include many aspects of cancer biology and regenerative medicine. The researchers at the CCR collaborate internally across the Georgetown campuses as well as world-wide with university scientists, clinicians, companies and foundations. 

The ultimate goal of CCR is to understand the basic mechanisms of conditional reprogramming and to apply the technique to the study of normal and diseased cells.  As part of its outreach, the CCR is working collaboratively with the National Institutes of Health (NCI, NCATS) with a focus on rare diseases.