Joseph Taube, PhD

Education

Postdoctoral Fellowship, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Ph.D., University of Texas Health Science Center - Houston
B.S., Baylor University

Courses Taught

Undergraduate Biology Courses

Graduate Catalog

• BIO 4301 Immunology
• BIO 4309 – Epigenetics
• BIO 5409 Cancer Biology

Biography

Dr. Taube is a graduate of Baylor University (BS Biochemistry) and earned his Ph.D from the University of Texas – Health Science Center in Houston working with Dr. Michelle Barton studying fundamental interactions between transcription factors and chromatin in the context of embryonic stem cell specification and hepatocellular carcinoma.

He continued his training as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Sendurai Mani at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston studying the contribution of epithelial-mesenchymal transition to metastasis and the role of epigenetic regulators for this process.

Recruited in 2015 to Baylor University, Dr. Taube founded a lab dedicated to tackling drivers of mortality in breast cancer through the understanding of  epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity and by applying novel molecules capable of targeting cancer stem cells. He has mentored 9 doctoral students and over 40 undergraduate researchers.

Research Interests

Outgrowth of disseminated metastases is the major cause of mortality in cancer patients. In the Taube lab, we are investigating the molecular pathways and cellular properties which enable primary tumor cells to metastasize.

In normal tissues, epithelial cells form a well-structured barrier using a variety of adhesion molecules. However, aberrant activation of a conserved cellular program, termed epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), facilitates the separation of epithelial cells from this tissue. When EMT occurs in epithelial tumors, the probability of metastatic dissemination is increased.

Our current work is focused on uncovering the regulatory mechanisms which facilitate EMT in both normal and cancerous settings, describing the specific targets and roles of these regulatory mechanisms and testing small molecule inhibitors of these proteins to ultimately lead to novel therapeutic strategies.

Selected Publications

1. Johnson K, Hussein S, Chakraborty P, Muruganantham A, Mikhail S, Gonzalez G, Song S, Jolly M, Toneff M, Benton ML, Lin Y, Taube J CTCF Expression and Dynamic Motif Accessibility Modulates Epithelial–Mesenchymal Gene Expression. Cancers (2022), 14, 209
    
2. Song S, Johnson KS, Lujan H, Pradhan SH, Sayes CM, Taube J. Nanoliposomal delivery of microRNA-203 suppresses migration of triple-negative breast cancer through distinct target suppression. ncRNA (2021)
    

3. Reisenauer K, Tao Y, Das P, Song S, Svatek H, Patel S, Mikhail S, Ingros A, Sheesley P, Evidente A, Kornienko A, Romo D, Taube J. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition sensitizes breast cancer cells to cell death via the fungus-derived sesterpenoid, Ophiobolin A. Scientific Reports (2021) 11:10652

    

4. Ophiobolin A impacts mitochondrial redox biology in an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-specific manner. Haleigh N. Parker, Yongfeng Tao, Jenna Tobin, Kayla L. Haberman, Samantha Davis, Emily York, Alysia Martinez, Nobuyuki Matsumoto, Jaquelin Aroujo, Jun Hyoung Park, Bernd Zechmann, Benny Abraham Kaipparettu, Angela Boari, Christie M. Sayes, Antonio Evidente, Alexander Kornienko, Benjamin Cravatt, Daniel Romo, Joseph H. Taube. Cancer Cell International. (2026) 26:80 doi.org/10.1186/s12935-025-04135-9 

    

5. Santhalakshmi Ranganathan, Tolulope Ojo, Alagu Subramanian, Jenna Tobin, Alexander Kornienko, Angela Boari, Antonio Evidente, Mary Lauren Benton, Daniel Romo and Joseph H. Taube. Gasdermin D Cleavage and Cytokine Release, Indicative of Pyroptotic Cell Death, Induced by Ophiobolin A in Breast Cancer Cell Lines. International Journal of Molecular Sciences; (2026), 27(2), 618; doi.org/10.3390/ijms27020618

    

6. Haleigh N. Parker, Kayla L. Haberman, Tolu Ojo, Juli Watkins, Adhwaitha Nambiar, Kayla Morales, Bernd Zechmann, Joseph. H. Taube. Twist-induced epithelial mesenchymal transition confers specific metabolic and mitochondrial alterations recapitulated in breast cancer cell lines. Cells (2025), 14(2), 80; DOI: 10.3390/cells14020080

    

7. Johnson K, Hussein S, Chakraborty P, Muruganantham A, Mikhail S, Gonzalez G, Song S, Jolly M, Toneff M, Benton ML, Lin Y, Taube J CTCF Expression and Dynamic Motif Accessibility Modulates Epithelial–Mesenchymal Gene Expression. Cancers (2022), 14, 209. doi: 10.3390/cancers14010209

    

8. Provas Das, Joseph Taube. Regulating Methylation at H3K27: a Trick or Treat for Cancer Cell Plasticity. Cancers. (2020) Sep 29;12(10):2792. doi: 10.3390/cancers12102792.

More publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-BE321cAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao