Kristen Johnson

Investigating the Role of Kinase Inhibitors and Chemotherapeutic Drugs on Pancreatic Cancer Cells part of CUREnet:CURE Collection
Pancreatic Cancer is the fourth deadliest cancer primarily due to its lack of visible symptoms, tremendous invasiveness, and, thus, late stage diagnosis. While much research has focused on understanding the major molecular changes underlying the transition from benign pancreatic ductal epithelial cells to aggressive carcinoma, we are still at a stage where there is no effective therapy. Our lab focuses on the study of transcriptional regulators that we believe play a role in the metastatic stage of tumorigenesis. We are working to dissect the mechanism and pathways in which these transcriptional regulators exert their effects. The research performed in this CURE extends our investigation into one of the transcriptional regulators, a forkhead family protein, FOXN2, through testing kinase inhibitors and chemotherapeutic agents that may deferentially affect cell viability based upon ta cell's FOXN2 status. This Cell Culture CURE enables students to (1) perform background research on the transcriptional regulator, inhibitors, and chemotherapeutic agents; (2) write a grant-like proposal for their independent project in which they will testing kinase pathway inhibitors (and/or chemotherapeutic drugs) on cell viability (or other chosen assays); (3) perform the research to collect the data (in triplicate); (4) present their research findings in a campus-wide scientific research conference.