Email

jason.mills@bcm.edu

Positions

Herman Brown Endowed Professor

Medicine-Gastroenterology
Baylor College of Medicine

Chief of Research

Medicine
Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Vice Chief

Medicine
Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Co-Director

Medicine
Digestive Disease Center
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Member

Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Professor

Medicine
Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Baylor College of Medicine

Education

AB from Washington University, St. Louis, MO

12/1989 - St. Louis, Missouri United States

MD-PhD from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

12/1997 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States

Postdoctoral Fellowship at Washington University Medical Center

01/2002 - St. Louis, Missouri United States

Honors & Awards

Dr. Jason Mills Research Lab

Dr. Jason Mills joins the Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the Department of Medicine along with a strong team of researchers. The team investigates how functional cells could be called back into operation as stem cells. Dr. Mills calls this paligenosis, or a return to a regenerative state. The research team’s goal is to see whether it’s happening throughout the body and, most importantly, to determine the origin of cancer. Dr. Mills has studied these cells for more than 15 years and brings with him two instructors—Drs. Ramon Jin and Charles Cho, as well as a research graduate student and a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Jin, who has a clinical interest in metaplasia, hopes to advance understanding around the origins of esophageal and gastric cancer as well as use the concept of paligenosis to optimize cancer therapy. Dr. Cho is studying the mechanics of how cells undergo paligenosis. The team also brings a large set of organoids—3-dimensional cells grown in the lab—which are derived from an actual patient’s cancer cells as well as genetic mouse strains that have mutant genes for cancer origins. The goal of the research is threefold: to prevent cancers, to find which lesions are the most dangerous and, in existing cancers, to understand what makes them continue. They hope by targeting paligenosis, they can attack the abundance of cancer cells specifically, unlike current cancer therapy which attacks all proliferating cells, including the ones we need for the blood, skin, and digestive organs. Dr. Mills says “Given these organoid resources, we can grow cells from tumors; eventually, we will be able to screen different drugs for them to test for ideal treatment plans for particular types of cancer.” Eventually, he foresees the ability to offer personalized medicine to patients with cancer by taking samples of a patient’s own cancer cells and determining in the lab the most effective treatment.

Baylor College 0f Medicine (04/2021)

Professional Statement

I am trained as a human pathologist and have served as an attending on autopsy service for nearly 20 years. As a scientist, I trained in cell and developmental biology as well as bioinformatics. My research focuses on how cells in tissue adapt to various stressors, in particular those that cause them to change their functional identity. Thus, I am interested in how mature cells rearrange their structure to become proliferative, regenerating cells. I have
proposed that cells have a universal program, like those for division and death, to do this. This cellular program, paligenosis, helps fuel tissue repair but also, by allowing old cells to proliferate, increases risk for mutation accumulation and develop of chronic, pre-cancerous conditions (like metaplasia) and tumorigenesis. I have also led several translational efforts, including clinical trials, to use my lab’s study of paligenosis to better prevent or treat tumors.

Selected Publications

• Miao ZF, Lewis MA, Cho CJ, Adkins-Threats M, Park D, Brown JW, Sun JX, Burclaff JR, Kennedy S, Lu J, Mahar M, Vietor I, Huber LA, Davidson NO, Cavalli V, Rubin DC, Wang ZN, Mills JC. "A Dedicated Evolutionarily Conserved Molecular Network Licenses Differentiated Cells to Return to the Cell Cycle.." 2020 Aug 7;178-194. Pubmed PMID: 32768422
• Miao ZF, Adkins-Threats M, Burclaff JR, Osaki LH, Sun JX, Kefalov Y, He Z, Wang ZN, Mills JC. "A Metformin-Responsive Metabolic Pathway Controls Distinct Steps in Gastric Progenitor Fate Decisions and Maturation.." Cell Stem Cell. 2020 Apr 2;910-925. Pubmed PMID: 32243780
• Miao ZF, Sun JX, Adkins-Threats M, Pang MJ, Zhao JH, Wang X, Tang KW, Wang ZN, Mills JC. "DDIT4 Licenses Only Healthy Cells to Proliferate During Injury-induced Metaplasia.." Gastroenterology. 2020 Sep 19;206-271. Pubmed PMID: 32956680
• Radyk MD, Burclaff J, Willet SG, Mills JC. "Metaplastic Cells in the Stomach Arise, Independently of Stem Cells, via Dedifferentiation or Transdifferentiation of Chief Cells." Gastroenterology. 2017 Dec 14;839-843. Pubmed PMID: 29248442

Funding

MECHANISMS GOVERNING EXPANSION OF EMBRYONIC PROGENITOR CELLS (EPCS) IN METAPLASIA - #R01 CA239645

$1,270,033.00 (06/10/2020 - 05/31/2025)

Grant funding from NIH NCI

MECHANISMS AND BIOMARKERS IN ABERRANT PALIGENOSIS-INDUCED STOMACH TUMORIGENESIS - #R01 CA246208

$637,500.00 (05/01/2020 - 04/30/2025)

Grant funding from NIH NCI

MECHANISMS OF CHIEF CELL DEDIFFERENTIATION - #R01 DK105129

$1,373,033.00 (09/30/2015 - 08/31/2024)

Grant funding from NIH NIDDK

REGULATION OF ATROPHY-INDUCED PROGENITOR CELLS IN THE GASTRIC CORPUS - #R01 DK094989

$1,414,115.00 (09/11/2012 - 04/30/2023)

Grant funding from NIH NIDDK

Languages

French