Michael is a cancer cell biologist and received his doctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Harold Moses at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. His Ph.D. thesis was on the role of TGF-Beta signaling in the tumor microenvironment and how this influenced breast cancer progression. After graduating, he moved to San Francisco to join the laboratory of Dr. Valerie Weaver. Currently, he is continuing his work on stromal interactions in cancer. Specifically, how biochemical and biophysical changes in the extracellular matrix influence stromal cell function during tumor progression.