Jason R Spence, PhD
H Marvin Pollard Professor of Gastrointestinal Sciences
Professor of Internal Medicine
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Medical School and Professor of Biomedical Engineering
College of Engineering and Medical School
[email protected]
Available to mentor
Jason R Spence, PhD
Professor
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Center Memberships
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Center MemberBiosciences Initiative
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Center MemberCenter for Cell Plasticity and Organ Design
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Center MemberCaswell Diabetes Institute
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Center MemberRogel Cancer Center
Research Overview
1. Developmental Biology: Using model organisms and human tissue to understand mechanisms by which the embryo develops, with a focus on specification, differentiation and organogenesis of tissue derived from the endoderm.
2. Stem Cell Biology, Regenerative Medicine and Disease Modeling: Directing differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into different endodermal lineages such that we may generate tissue for replacement therapies and discover novel in vitro methods to model and study human development and disease.
Links
Jason Spence Lab Translational Tissue Modeling Laboratory @TheSpenceLab
Recent Publications
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Etzioni N, Frum T, Johnson K, Álvarez-Maldonado AP, Yllescas-Lopez HM, Bayer DE, Xiao Z, Eiken MK, Loebel C, Wu JH, Tsai Y-H, Wu A, Zhang CJ, Dame MK, Gunuguntla B, Cuttitta AJ, Ho H, Tigani DJ, Sexton J, Dasuri VS, Makogonov N, O’Connell AE, Spence JR, Torres DF. 2026 Jun 26; bioRxiv,PreprintSuspension-Based Human Esophagoids Recapitulate WNT2B-Dependent Regulation of Esophageal Basal Progenitors
DOI:10.64898/2026.06.23.733451 -
Ray P, Jaiswal S, Ferrer-Torres D, Wang Z, Nancarrow D, Curtin M, Martinho MS, Lacy SM, Kasturirangan S, Thomas D, Spence JR, Truttmann MC, Lagisetty KH, Lawrence TS, Wang TD, Beer DG, Ray D. 2026 Jun 17;Additional ScholarshipData from GRAIL1 Stabilizes Misfolded Mutant p53 through a Ubiquitin Ligase-Independent, Chaperone Regulatory Function
DOI:10.1158/1541-7786.c.7520410 -
Ray P, Jaiswal S, Ferrer-Torres D, Wang Z, Nancarrow D, Curtin M, Martinho MS, Lacy SM, Kasturirangan S, Thomas D, Spence JR, Truttmann MC, Lagisetty KH, Lawrence TS, Wang TD, Beer DG, Ray D. 2026 Jun 17;Additional ScholarshipSupplementary Figure S1 from GRAIL1 Stabilizes Misfolded Mutant p53 through a Ubiquitin Ligase-Independent, Chaperone Regulatory Function
DOI:10.1158/1541-7786.32710742 -
Ray P, Jaiswal S, Ferrer-Torres D, Wang Z, Nancarrow D, Curtin M, Martinho MS, Lacy SM, Kasturirangan S, Thomas D, Spence JR, Truttmann MC, Lagisetty KH, Lawrence TS, Wang TD, Beer DG, Ray D. 2026 Jun 17;Additional ScholarshipSupplementary Figure S2 from GRAIL1 Stabilizes Misfolded Mutant p53 through a Ubiquitin Ligase-Independent, Chaperone Regulatory Function
DOI:10.1158/1541-7786.32710739 -
Ray P, Jaiswal S, Ferrer-Torres D, Wang Z, Nancarrow D, Curtin M, Martinho MS, Lacy SM, Kasturirangan S, Thomas D, Spence JR, Truttmann MC, Lagisetty KH, Lawrence TS, Wang TD, Beer DG, Ray D. 2026 Jun 17;Additional ScholarshipSupplementary Figure S3 from GRAIL1 Stabilizes Misfolded Mutant p53 through a Ubiquitin Ligase-Independent, Chaperone Regulatory Function
DOI:10.1158/1541-7786.32710736 -
Ray P, Jaiswal S, Ferrer-Torres D, Wang Z, Nancarrow D, Curtin M, Martinho MS, Lacy SM, Kasturirangan S, Thomas D, Spence JR, Truttmann MC, Lagisetty KH, Lawrence TS, Wang TD, Beer DG, Ray D. 2026 Jun 17;Additional ScholarshipSupplementary Figure S4 from GRAIL1 Stabilizes Misfolded Mutant p53 through a Ubiquitin Ligase-Independent, Chaperone Regulatory Function
DOI:10.1158/1541-7786.32710733 -
Ray P, Jaiswal S, Ferrer-Torres D, Wang Z, Nancarrow D, Curtin M, Martinho MS, Lacy SM, Kasturirangan S, Thomas D, Spence JR, Truttmann MC, Lagisetty KH, Lawrence TS, Wang TD, Beer DG, Ray D. 2026 Jun 17;Additional ScholarshipSupplementary Figure S5 from GRAIL1 Stabilizes Misfolded Mutant p53 through a Ubiquitin Ligase-Independent, Chaperone Regulatory Function
DOI:10.1158/1541-7786.32710730 -
Ray P, Jaiswal S, Ferrer-Torres D, Wang Z, Nancarrow D, Curtin M, Martinho MS, Lacy SM, Kasturirangan S, Thomas D, Spence JR, Truttmann MC, Lagisetty KH, Lawrence TS, Wang TD, Beer DG, Ray D. 2026 Jun 17;Additional ScholarshipSupplementary Figure S6 from GRAIL1 Stabilizes Misfolded Mutant p53 through a Ubiquitin Ligase-Independent, Chaperone Regulatory Function
DOI:10.1158/1541-7786.32710727
Featured News & Stories
Health Lab
Evolutionary insights into the development of the human intestine
An international research team finds that the human gut is a site of rapid change, with recent and important deviations from other mammals.
Department News
New Publication from the Spence Lab!
Cell Reports published "Lysophosphatidic acid and sphingosine-1-phosphate are apical polarity cues in multiple organoid systems" by the Spence Lab.
Points of Blue
Ansley Conchola, MD, PhD: Developing as a physician scientist and mom
Ansley Conchola, MD, PhD, shares her experience in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Michigan.