Langer Lab (2023)

In the summer of 2023, I worked at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute as a participant in the Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology Summer Research Internship Program. I received valuable mentorship from Drs. Ellen Langer and Eric Carlson at the Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center to study fibroblast plasticity in pancreatic cancer, which has a mere 12% five-year survival rate. Given that pancreatic tumors are mostly non-malignant cells, I focused on crosstalk mechanisms between cancer cells and stromal cells, as well as environmental cues that trigger cancer cell differentiation. More specifically, I studied the influence of exogenous metabolites on TGFβ1-driven activation of human Pancreatic Stellate Cells towards a myofibroblast-like cancer-associated fibroblast (myCAF) state. Over this three-month internship I discovered a synergistic mechanism of myCAF differentiation involving TGFβ1 and glutamine. I presented these findings in a poster presentation for the OHSU community.