Tumor ecosystems are composed of multiple cell types that communicate by ligand-receptor interactions. However, our knowledge of which interactions occur in a tumor and how these interactions affect outcome is still limited. We present an approach to characterize communication by ligand-receptor interactions across all cell-types in the microenvironment using single-cell RNA sequencing. Overall, this approach provides a tool for studying cell-cell interactions, their variability across tumors, and their relationship to outcome.

Although several subtypes of ovarian cancer are known to exhibit dysregulated mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling, clinical trials of kinase inhibitors for treating them have not seen much success. We aim to investigate if this can be explained in part by the existence of early adaptive resistance mechanisms. A systems-level understanding of resistance in the context of ovarian cancer cells, as well as extracellular cues from tumor-associated macrophages, may inform the design of novel and synergistic combination therapies.