Rui Laboratory
Translational & Biomedical Resource Center
4th Floor | _ruilab@mcw.edu
General Interests
Breast Cancer Research View Hallgeir Rui bio
Personal Statement
I earned a medical degree and a doctorate in experimental pathology from the University of Oslo, Norway. I serve as associate director for shared resources at Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center. My research on hormone-signaling pathways in breast cancer is internationally recognized. I have authored or coauthored ~200 peer-reviewed publications that have been cited nearly 10,000 times. A central focus of my research is on molecular profiling of solid tumors, with published track record in malignancies of the breast, pancreas, prostate, colon, head and neck and melanomas. Key areas of interest are therapy-relevant protein expression, including pathway-activation status and tumor immunology-related markers, with development of better predictive markers and improved personalized cancer care as the overarching goal. Efforts are dedicated to improving methods and applications for quantitative, multiplex immunohistochemistry (IHC) for single-cell protein marker analyses – histocytometry – in solid tumors.
My laboratory invented novel ultrahigh density tissue arraying technology termed cutting-edge matrix assembly (CEMA) that overcomes limitations of core-based tissue arrays (US patent 8,349,584). Our laboratory, in collaboration with Dr. Kay-Uwe Wagner, developed novel prolactin-humanized NSG-Pro mouse strain for more accurate modeling and drug response testing of human breast cancer and other prolactin receptor-positive cancers, and my team has established a panel of new patient-derived breast cancer xenograft models in NSG-Pro mice.
I have extensive experience in facilitating multidisciplinary and collaborative program projects, including a concluded $6.7 million Promise Project Award funded by Susan G. Komen Foundation. Attesting to the productive use of immunofluorescence-based quantitative histocytometry and tissue arraying technologies for high-throughput application of innovative and nonstandard technologies for immunoprofiling of solid tumors, I led a multidisciplinary team that quantified levels of more than 100 therapy-relevant protein markers in nearly 3,000 breast cancer specimens, using tissue arrays and accompanying clinical data assembled and procured by a consortium of five institutions. As the leader of this consortium, I coordinated extensive efforts to combine tissue resources, data, equipment resources and broad areas of expertise.
Current Members






Sameer Udhane, PhD
Clinical Curation Scientist, Exact Sciences
Research unlocks potential for new therapies in patients with metastatic breast cancer
Source: The Cancer Code Weekly News | MCW Cancer Center, October 5, 2021
MCW scientists have created a new mouse strain, called NSG-Pro, that produces levels of human prolactin similar to those in patients with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. Published in Science Advances, the NSG-Pro mouse model offers the potential for more accurate testing of tumor drug responses and improved precision medicine with more optimal therapy selection for patients.
To date, a shortage of human breast tumor models has hampered efforts to identify treatments for patients whose tumors have become therapy resistant and recur years later. “We are particularly excited about the opportunity to study distant metastases and test the effectiveness of new therapies, because until now such experimental models have not been available,” says MCW’s Hallgeir Rui, MD.
Intriguingly, after surgically removing implanted breast cancer tumors in NSG-Pro mice, the team found that two different prolactin-blocking treatments inhibited the growth of cancer cells that had spread to the lungs. While further studies are needed, research offers new insights into tumor biology, metastatic progression, mechanisms of therapy resistance, and new therapeutic approaches.
Recent Publications
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Sustained Inflammation of Breast Tumors after Needle Biopsy.
(McCarty C, Yi M, Sous S, Leslie M, Tariq E, Dondapati P, Kameyama H, Nuguri S, Hills N, Wilkerson M, Davis R, Mesiya S, Rui H, Chervoneva I, Zhang R, Tanaka T.) Pathobiology. 2022 Jun 01:1-9 PMID: 35649384 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85131290013 06/02/2022
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(Puzyrenko A, Felix JC, Ledeboer NA, Sun Y, Rui H, Sheinin Y.) Pathology. 2022 Jun;54(4):404-408 PMID: 34836647 PMCID: PMC8572726 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85119915379 11/28/2021
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(Maisel BA, Yi M, Peck AR, Sun Y, Hooke JA, Kovatich AJ, Shriver CD, Hu H, Nevalainen MT, Tanaka T, Simone N, Wang LL, Rui H, Chervoneva I.) Cancers (Basel). 2022 Jan 08;14(2) PMID: 35053472 PMCID: PMC8773496 01/22/2022
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(Maisel BA, Yi M, Peck AR, Sun Y, Hooke JA, Kovatich AJ, Shriver CD, Hu H, Nevalainen MT, Tanaka T, Simone N, Wang LL, Rui H, Chervoneva I.) Cancers. January-2 2022;14(2) SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85122409008 01/01/2022
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(George J, Li Y, Kadamberi IP, Parashar D, Tsaih SW, Gupta P, Geethadevi A, Chen C, Ghosh C, Sun Y, Mittal S, Ramchandran R, Rui H, Lopez-Berestein G, Rodriguez-Aguayo C, Leone G, Rader JS, Sood AK, Dey M, Pradeep S, Chaluvally-Raghavan P.) Cell Rep. 2021 11 02;37(5):109934 PMID: 34731628 PMCID: PMC8675433 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85118477211 11/04/2021
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(Geethadevi A, Nair A, Parashar D, Ku Z, Xiong W, Deng H, Li Y, George J, McAllister DM, Sun Y, Kadamberi IP, Gupta P, Dwinell MB, Bradley WH, Rader JS, Rui H, Schwabe RF, Zhang N, Pradeep S, An Z, Chaluvally-Raghavan P.) Cancer Res. 2021 10 15;81(20):5336-5352 PMID: 34380633 PMCID: PMC8530981 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85116424540 08/13/2021
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(Velie EM, Marcus LR, Pathak DR, Hamilton AS, DiGaetano R, Klinger R, Gollapudi B, Houang R, Carnegie N, Olson LK, Allen A, Zhang Z, Modjesk D, Norman G, Lucas DR, Gupta S, Rui H, Schwartz K.) Cancer Causes Control. 2021 Oct;32(10):1129-1148 PMID: 34292440 PMCID: PMC8416838 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85111106933 07/23/2021
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(Sun Y, Yang N, Utama FE, Udhane SS, Zhang J, Peck AR, Yanac A, Duffey K, Langenheim JF, Udhane V, Xia G, Peterson JF, Jorns JM, Nevalainen MT, Rouet R, Schofield P, Christ D, Ormandy CJ, Rosenberg AL, Chervoneva I, Tsaih SW, Flister MJ, Fuchs SY, Wagner KU, Rui H.) Sci Adv. 2021 Sep 17;7(38):eabc8145 PMID: 34524841 PMCID: PMC8443188 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85115168052 09/16/2021
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(Puzyrenko A, Jacobs ER, Sun Y, Felix JC, Sheinin Y, Ge L, Lai S, Dai Q, Gantner BN, Nanchal R, North PE, Simpson PM, Rui H, Benjamin IJ.) Cell Stress Chaperones. 2021 09;26(5):859-868 PMID: 34382151 PMCID: PMC8357488 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85112285201 08/13/2021
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(Sun Y, Ge L, Udhane SS, Langenheim JF, Rau MJ, Patton MD, Gallan AJ, Felix JC, Rui H.) Methods Protoc. 2021 Jul 10;4(3) PMID: 34287344 PMCID: PMC8293419 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85111011758 07/22/2021
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Highly metastatic claudin-low mammary cancers can originate from luminal epithelial cells.
(Rädler PD, Wehde BL, Triplett AA, Shrestha H, Shepherd JH, Pfefferle AD, Rui H, Cardiff RD, Perou CM, Wagner KU.) Nat Commun. 2021 06 18;12(1):3742 PMID: 34145248 PMCID: PMC8213728 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85108162441 06/20/2021
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Highly metastatic claudin-low mammary cancers can originate from luminal epithelial cells
(Rädler PD, Wehde BL, Triplett AA, Shrestha H, Shepherd JH, Pfefferle AD, Rui H, Cardiff RD, Perou CM, Wagner KU.) Nature Communications. December 2021;12(1) SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85108162441 12/01/2021