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Colin Kenny, PhD

Assistant Professor of Surgery - Surgical Oncology and Endocrine Surgery

Introduction

Dr. Kenny joined the University of Iowa, Hospitals & Clinics in 2022 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery. He was an instructor in the Department of Oral Health Sciences at the University of Washington in 2022 and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from 2019-2021 in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Iowa. Before transitioning to the United States, Dr. Kenny obtained his PhD from Trinity College Dublin where he also did a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from 2017-2018 on chromosomal translocations and epigenetic changes in brain and renal sarcomas. At UIowa, Dr. Kenny and his lab study transcription factor gene regulatory networks in melanocyte stem cells and in melanoma cell fate switching, metastasis and treatment resistant disease.

Current Positions

  • Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Iowa.
  • Assistant Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Iowa.
  • Affiliate Assistant Professor of Oral Health, Neural Crest and Craniofacial Biology at the Department of Oral Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle.
  • Co-chair Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center (HCCC) seminar series

Education

  • BSc in Genetics, University College Cork, Ireland.
  • PhD in Oncology and Epigenetics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Pediatric Sarcoma, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Iowa, USA.
  • Instructor of Oral Health, Neural Crest and Craniofacial Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
  • Course director of the Oral Health Sciences Seminar Series (OHS575) and lecturer of Molecular Biology (OHS579) at the University of Washington – 2022

Graduate Program Affiliations

Center, Program and Institute Affiliations

Licenses & Certifications

  • American Association for Anatomy (AAA)
  • PanAmerican Society for Pigment Cell Research (PASPCR)

Selected Publications

  • Yevdash, J.I., Moore, R., Li, Z., Campbell-Hanson, K.R., Robinson, D., Gutelius, D., Moore, S.P.G., Friend, D., Toole, I., Cornell, R.A., Lang, D., Weigel, RJ., Kenny C. (2025). Mitfa-Independent Melanocyte Progenitors are Highly Susceptible to GNAQ-induced Uveal Melanoma in Adult Zebrafish. bioRxiv, 2025.652300. 10.1101/2025.05.05.652300.
  • Li Z, Koch KE, Thompson DT, Van der Heide DM, Chang J, Franke CM, Suraju MO, Beck AC, Lorenzen AW, White JR, Bartschat NI, Kulak MV, Meyerholz DK, Kenny C, Weigel RJ. Sumoylated Etv1 establishes mouse mammary cancer stem cells that support tumorigenesis by non-stem cancer cells. Dev Cell. 2025 Apr 25:S1534-5807(25)00207-2. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2025.04.005. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40315856.
  • Chang J, Campbell-Hanson KR, Vanneste M, Bartschat NI, Nagel R, Arnadottir AK, Vu HN, Montgomery C, Yevdash J, Jiang J, Bhinu A, Helverson A, Henry MD, Steingrímsson E, Weigel RJ, Cornell RA, Kenny C. Antagonistic roles for MITF and TFE3 in melanoma plasticity. Cell Rep. 2025 Apr 22;44(4):115474. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115474. Epub 2025 Mar 25. PMID: 40138313.
  • Nguyen, T. T., Mitchell, J. M., Kiel, M. D., Kenny, C. P., Li, H., Jones, K. L., Cornell, R. A., Williams, T. J., Nichols, J. T., & Van Otterloo, E. (2023). TFAP2 paralogs regulate midfacial development in part through a conserved ALX genetic pathway. Development (Cambridge, England), dev.202095. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.202095
  • Kenny C, Dilshat R, Seberg HE, Van Otterloo E, Bonde G, Helverson A, Franke CM, Steingrímsson E, Cornell RA. TFAP2 paralogs facilitate chromatin access for MITF at pigmentation and cell proliferation genes. PLoS Genet. 2022 May 17;18(5):e1010207. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010207. PMID: 35580127
  • Campbell NR, Rao A, Hunter MV, Sznurkowska MK, Briker L, Zhang M, Baron M, Heilmann S, Deforet M, Kenny C, Ferretti LP, Huang TH, Perlee S, Garg M, Nsengimana J, Saini M, Montal E, Tagore M, Newton-Bishop J, Middleton MR, Corrie P, Adams DJ, Rabbie R, Aceto N, Levesque MP, Cornell RA, Yanai I, Xavier JB, White RM. Cooperation between melanoma cell states promotes metastasis through heterotypic cluster formation. Dev Cell. 2021 Sep 13:S1534-5807(21)00677-8. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2021.08.018. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34529939
  • Kenny C, O'Meara E, Ulaş M, Hokamp K, O'Sullivan MJ. Global Chromatin Changes Resulting from Single-Gene Inactivation-The Role of SMARCB1 in Malignant Rhabdoid Tumor. Cancers. 2021 May 23;13(11):2561. doi: 10.3390/cancers13112561. PMID: 34071089
  • Hamm M, Sohier P, Petit V, Raymond JH, Delmas V, Le Coz M, Gesbert F, Kenny C, Aktary Z, Pouteaux M, Rambow F, Sarasin A, Charoenchon N, Bellacosa A, Sanchez-Del-Campo L, Mosteo L, Lauss M, Meijer D, Steingrimsson E, Jönsson GB, Cornell RA, Davidson I, Goding CR, Larue L. BRN2 is a non-canonical melanoma tumor-suppressor. Nat Commun. 2021 Jun 17;12(1):3707. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23973-5. PMID: 34140478
  • Dilshat R, Fock V, Kenny C, Gerritsen I, Lasseur RMJ, Travnickova J, Eichhoff OM, Cerny P, Möller K, Sigurbjörnsdóttir S, Kirty K, Einarsdottir BÓ, Cheng PF, Levesque M, Cornell RA, Patton EE, Larue L, de Tayrac M, Magnúsdóttir E, Ögmundsdóttir MH, Steingrimsson E. MITF reprograms the extracellular matrix and focal adhesion in melanoma. Elife. 2021 Jan 13;10:e63093. doi: 10.7554/eLife.63093. PMID: 33438577
  • Kenny C, Grehan D, Ulas M, Banga GB, Coulomb A, Vokuhl C, O'Sullivan MJ. Immunophenotype-Genotype Correlations in Clear Cell Sarcoma of Kidney—An Evaluation of Diagnostic Ancillary Studies. Pediatric and Developmental Pathology. 2020 May 4:1093526620910658. PMID: 32364435