Yves A. DeClerck's Biography

Yves A. DeClerck, Professor of Pediatrics and Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, University of Southern California

Yves DeClerck, MD, is a Pediatrician-Scientist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and USC, and the holder of the Richard Call Family Chair in Pediatric Research Innovation. He is leading a cancer biology research program focused on the Tumor Microenvironment (TME) and its contribution to cancer progression and metastasis. The main objective of the laboratory is to understand fundamental mechanisms of communication between tumor cells and stromal cells in the TME in order to identify targets for therapeutic intervention that can be tested in relevant pre-clinical models. The research program has 3 major directions: (1) Contribution of MSC and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) to neuroblastoma progression; (2) Contribution of exosomes and extracellular vesicles to the education of CAF/MSC and macrophages by tumor cells; and (3) Role of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) in cancer progression.

Dr. DeClerck is an Associate Director and Program Co-leader at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, a Senior Editor for Molecular Cancer Research and a member of numerous scientific review groups at the NIH, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, and European Research Commission.