Boston, Massachusetts, United States
As a climate and health reporter, I craft scientific stories for public benefit. Having trained as a scientist at the MIT and Harvard's Broad Institute and a reporter in the streets of Boston, I craft human stories driven by narrative, deepened with data, and married with care.
Cambridge Day, Brookline.News, Pangyrus, Quinobequin Review
Greka Lab
Miller Lab Project title: Targeting CD36 and fatty acid metabolism in dormant ER+/HER2- breast cancer in the adjuvant setting Project description: The goal of this project in the Miller Lab is to characterize CD36 in dormant ER+/HER2- breast cancer in the adjuvant setting, and investigate fatty acid metabolism and CD36 as possible therapeutic targets. Estrogen receptor-positive (ER+), human epidermal growth factor 2-negative (HER2-) breast cancer (BC) is the most common subtype of breast cancer, occurring in about sixty per cent of cases. Standard treatment involves surgical resection of the breast tumor, and adjuvant anti-estrogen therapy that reduces systemic estrogen levels and the probability of recurrence. Drug-tolerant persister cancer cells (DTPs) are dormant cells able to survive therapy and induce metastatic disease for which there currently is no cure. One-third of ER+/HER2- breast cancer cases result in tumor recurrence, often years after initial diagnosis. Previous publications have shown that DTPs have increased AMPK activity which drives fatty acid oxidation, leading to the hypothesis that DTPs use fatty acid catabolism to persist in estrogen-deprived conditions. As a component of fatty acid metabolism, CD36 imports fatty acids into cells, offering a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for ER+/HER2- DTPs. Lab experiments using ER+/HER2- breast cancer cells, mice, and human specimens will be conducted. This research has implications for the treatment of patients who may harbor DTPs. Scholarship: Undergraduate Research Assistantship at Dartmouth (URAD) Scholar