Guy LaBrecque
Research Mentor: Timothy Frankel
Mentor Department: Surgery, Medicine
Author(s): Guy LaBrecque, Harrison Hiraki, Georgina Branch, Timothy Frankel
Session: Session 3 (11:00 AM – 11:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 134
Abstract
Understanding the role that endothelial cells play in driving pancreatic cancer metastasis is crucial for the future of cancer treatment and inhibiting invasion towards the blood vessels. In this experiment, tissue engineering was utilized to assemble functional constructs that maintain the structure and characteristics of the tumor microenvironment. More specifically, microfluidic devices were fabricated to study in vitro interactions between patient pancreatic cancer cells and endothelial cells. The main source of interaction or communication that is being analyzed is soluble signaling wherein cells secrete ligands to signal to each other. Microfluidic invasion assays were performed and cancer cells were observed invading towards the endothelial cells. Bulk RNA sequencing was performed on the cancer cells to look for a correlation of RNA expressed throughout the different cell lines that code for proteins whose functions are to send or receive these ligands. Next steps include analyzing the data from the bulk sequencing to identify proteins of interest and screening inhibitor drugs to hinder communications between the epithelial and endothelial cells. If it is found that certain proteins can be blocked with high selectivity in order to slow the rate of metastasis, it could revolutionize the way that pancreatic cancer is treated.
