Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Dissecting Tumor Heterogeneity In Lung Cancer, Aparna Padhye

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Lung cancer is a heterogeneous disease composed of genetically and phenotypically distinct tumor cells as well as a heterogeneous microenvironment consisting of non-cancer cells and extracellular matrix. Constant interactions among these components ultimately leads to a complex tumor tissue that is ever evolving and poses a therapeutic challenge for sustained benefit. Strategies for targeting lung cancers are largely guided by the genetic alterations identified in the tumor specimens. However, in order to gain a better understanding of lung cancer progression and develop effective treatment modalities, studying tumor in context of its microenvironment is crucial. The first aim of this project …

Molecular Drivers Of Bladder Cancer Motility, Bryan Wehrenberg

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Bladder cancer (BC) progression is measured by the degree of tumor cell invasion into the bladder wall and dissemination to distant sites. The study of BC cell motility will both enable development of anti-invasion therapeutics to limit progression of early-stage disease and improve our understanding of the metastatic process which drives patient mortality in BC. BCs display a great deal of intertumoral heterogeneity, and can be divided into basal and luminal subtypes, which are biologically and clinically distinct entities. Here, I examine the invasion phenotypes of BC as a function of both subtype and epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) status. …

Role Of Methyltransferase Like-3 (Mettl3) In Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (Pdac) Progression, Bhargavi Brahmendra Barathi

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive cancer with about a 10% five-year survival rate. The grim prognostic situation of pancreatic cancer patients underlines the need to identify novel molecular targets. Recent studies have brought to attention, the need to therapeutically exploit epigenetic pathways, apart from only targeting genetic mutations to effectively combat PDAC. To that effect, METTL3-mediated post-transcriptional methylation of RNA transcripts have been shown to contribute to cancer progression in multiple cancer types.

METTL3 deposits methyl groups onto adenosine bases within specific consensus sequences in RNA, resulting in the formation of N-6 methyl adenosine (m6A). m6A is the …