Dr. Iacobuzio’s research is focused on the fundamental mechanisms underlying metastasis using pancreatic cancer as a model tumor type. Her laboratory is unique in that it utilizes primary and metastatic tissues obtained from the rapid autopsy of cancer patients in combination with next-generation sequencing of the harvested tissues to understand the mechanisms of metastasis. This approach has led to the discovery of the distinct patterns of metastatic failure in pancreatic cancer patients, the relationship of these patterns of failure to the genetics of the primary carcinoma, the origin of distant metastases from subclonal populations that are preexistent within the primary carcinoma, and the timing of distant metastasis formation based on computational models.