Henry Ford Health System, Pancreatic Cancer Center
RESEARCH FUNDED BY SKY FOUNDATION, INC.
Title of Research: Elucidating drivers of plasticity in subtypes of Pancreatic Cancer
Project Description: Pancreatic cancer is not a uniform disease but is rather divided into two main subtypes termed “classical” and “basal.” Basal pancreatic cancer is more aggressive than classical, with poor prognosis and overall worse response to therapy. These subtypes represent opportunities for personalized medicine approaches if we can find unique biological targets between the two. Additionally, the subtypes of pancreatic cancer are not stationary but plastic, meaning they can interconvert, which alters signaling in the tumor and response to therapy.
My project focuses on deciphering one of these plasticity factors we believe to be a critical driver of the subtypes. We aim to test the influence this factor has upon the ability of pancreatic cancer cells to achieve plasticity, to show specific drug sensitivity, and to test the expression of this factor using donated patient tissue.
This work will inform us of the importance of this factor as a critical driver of the basal subtype and as a potential biomarker of disease.
Bio: I am passionate about solving the most difficult and puzzling diseases and thus my work has spanned from studying cisplatin resistant ovarian cancer during graduate school, to pancreatic cancer, now, as a postdoctoral fellow.
As a graduate student at Wayne State University, my work focused on cancer metabolism and deciphering the role of one-carbon inhibitors on both tumor cells and tumor-associated macrophages.
Now, as a postdoctoral fellow at Henry Ford Pancreatic Cancer Center with Drs. Howard Crawford and Sita Kugel, I am studying the epigenetic factors which regulate the subtypes of pancreas cancer. My projects have focused on transcription factors and drug resistance as they influence plasticity between classical and basal pancreas cancer. The long-term goal is to decipher differential biology between the pancreatic cancer subtypes in order to find actionable drug targets to move to clinical trials.