Assistant Professor, Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology
Duncan Faculty Scholar, Member of the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Baylor College of Medicine
Kevin Roarty is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine, a Duncan Faculty Scholar, and a member of the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
His research focuses on how signaling pathways and cell state transitions regulate tissue organization during normal mammary gland development and how these programs are repurposed during breast cancer progression and metastasis. A central theme of his work is understanding how Wnt signaling integrates with cell–cell adhesion, cytoskeletal dynamics, and the extracellular microenvironment to shape cellular heterogeneity, cooperative interactions among tumor cell states, and metastatic fitness.
Kevin received his doctoral training in Cell Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the laboratory of Dr. Rosa Serra, where his work identified Wnt5a as a key mediator of TGF-β signaling in the mammary epithelium and established its role in tumor suppression and regulation of epithelial cell state plasticity. As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Rosen at Baylor College of Medicine, he defined mechanisms underlying Wnt signaling specificity in normal mammary gland development and extended these insights to basal-like triple-negative breast cancer, uncovering Wnt-dependent programs that govern tumor architecture and adhesive behavior.
The Roarty Lab now investigates the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie key metastatic bottlenecks, with a focus on how tumor cells disseminate, adapt, and successfully colonize distant organs. By combining advanced imaging, genetically engineered mouse models, and single-cell and spatial genomic approaches, the lab aims to define principles governing metastatic progression—the leading cause of breast cancer–related mortality.
His research is supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen Foundation, Elsa U. Pardee Foundation, Caroline Wiess Law Fund for Research in Molecular Medicine, and the L.E. Gordy Cancer Research Fund.