Spring has sprung! One day it was 78^oF…two days later 17^oF, but now that the daffodils have made an appearance, and my car has fine dusting of pollen on it daily, I can confidently say that spring is here (at least on paper it arrives on March 20th). I hope that you enjoy the longer days and any spring break plans that you may have in the coming weeks!

Our Cancer Biology Program members have a lot of achievements to be proud of this year and I encourage you to take a look at their most recent publications and awards below.

Kim Dahlman

Getting to Know You…

Faculty Spotlight

Ben Ho Park, M.D., Ph.D.
Donna S. Hall Professor of Medicine 

Of course, I could not do anything without the unwavering support of my family. My wife, Paula Hurley, Ph.D. is a prostate cancer researcher (we like to say we have each other covered).  My daughter Sophia (13) and son Gibson (11) know that what their parents do is important and are forgiving of our crazy schedules and lives. But we still find time to have a “relaxing” adventure with escape rooms!  I am a physician scientist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center since September 2018. Prior to joining Vanderbilt I was at Johns Hopkins for 20 years!  My initial inspiration to work in breast cancer research comes from, Yolanda Jaksetic or “Grandma Nona”. When I was training as a clinical Heme/Onc Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, she developed metastatic breast cancer. “Nona” was a full of life woman who loved everyone and was loved by everyone! I will never forget the day she asked me whether she had to continue with chemotherapy. It was both sad and happy in that I knew she wanted to live out the remainder of her days with the best quality of life possible. It also inspired me to pursue a career in breast cancer research to try and cure the disease. Dr. Parks’ other affiliations are as Co-Leader of the Breast Cancer Research Program, Associate Director for Translational Research, and Director of Precision Oncology at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

Trainee Spotlight

Miranda Sowder, B.S.
Graduate Student 
Johnson Lab
Miranda is originally from Roanoke, Virginia and received her B.S. in Biology from James Madison University in 2012. During her time at Vanderbilt, Miranda has been appointed to the Microenvironment Influences in Cancer Training Program, served on the CBSA, and mentored numerous graduate and undergraduate students. Her current research focuses on identifying mechanisms that control tumor dormancy and colonization of the bone marrow. Specifically, this work aims to understand the epigenetic regulation of the pro-dormancy gene, LIFR, and whether targeting histone deacetylases is a viable therapeutic option to induce and maintain tumor cells in a chronic state of dormancy. In order to better model prolonged tumor latency in the bone, her recent publication establishes several novel models of bone colonization and highly sensitive methods to detect rare tumor cells in the bone. These models mimic the metastatic latency period observed in breast cancer patients and therefore will be instrumental for the study of factors and/or therapeutics that regulate metastatic outgrowth. Together, this research will provide mechanistic insight into tumor dormancy and holds significant clinical potential to prevent recurrence and increase patient survival.

Staff Spotlight

Anna Chytil, B.S.
Senior Research Specialist
K Rathmell Lab
After graduating from Vanderbilt University, Anna moved to Maryland where she worked at USUHS, NIH, and Life Technologies. After returning to Nashville in 1992, she joined Dr. Hal Moses’ laboratory, where she worked on several mouse models of breast and pancreatic cancer in the context of TGF-ß signaling. In 2005 Anna won the School of Medicine Research Staff Award for Excellence in Research Contributing to Multi-Investigator Teams for engineering a Cre/Lox mouse. In 2015, she was very fortunate to become a member of Dr. Kim Rathmell’s laboratory where she continues to work in cancer research. Working for Dr. Rathmell gave Anna the opportunity to learn about renal cell carcinoma and to use her broad variety of laboratory skills to contribute to the lab. One of her pleasures is working with graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. When she’s not working, she loves spending time with her husband Bill, their pets and friends. She also enjoys gardening, mosaics, and glass bead making.

Congratulations!!!!!

Check out the recent publication from Young Kim, M.D., Ph.D. and Michael Korrer, Ph.D. in the journal Cell describing a new way to enhance immune system killing of tumors.Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Photo credit : Anne Rayner; VU

Please register for the conference with this link. Looking forward to seeing you there! 2019 Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Retreat “Signal Transduction in Cancer Initiation, Progression and Treatment”  

Meharry Medical College/Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and Tennessee State University Cancer Partnership recently hosted the 18^th Annual Cancer Symposium Co-Sponsored with GMaP. “Cancer Health Disparities: Understanding Biological, Behavioral and Social Factors.”

The two-day event was held at Meharry Medical College and included a welcome by Samuel Adunyah, Ph.D., professor and chair of Biochemistry and Cancer Biology at Meharry. The keynote speaker was Lisa Newman, M.D. from Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital Network. Lisa gave a riveting lecture on the “African Ancestry and High Risk/Triple Negative Breast Cancer.”

Diva Whalen
presented the MVT student talk and her exciting research, RASGRF2: PREFERRED GEF OF TRIPLE NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER.”

Poster Winners at the Meharry/Vanderbilt/TSU 18th Annual Cancer Symposium.
1st Place Poster Presentation Winners:
Diversity award:  Jennifer Davis, Meharry Medical College
Graduate award: Sheryl Celada, Meharry Medical College
Medical/Dental: Kalin Wilson, Vanderbilt Medical School
Overall: Sang Nguyen, Vanderbilt Medical School
Undergraduate awards to:
Sara Jamal Tennessee State University
Anesha Walker, Tennessee University
Peiton Jarmon, Vanderbilt University.

Our two cancer survivors, Sharon Peters, Ph.D. and Lynda Johnson, spoke of their journey with the disease and shared their experiences. The best advice for someone going through cancer is that you cannot go through this battle alone, you must ask for help and build a community around yourself!
And  you must make lifestyle changes. Lynda and Sharon gave riveting lectures and are passionate about helping others!

Sharon Peters, Ph.D. is Executive Director for Community College Initiatives at Tennessee State University. Dr. Peters’ cancer journey, specifically multiple myeloma, began two years ago. She is currently in remission and is passionate about educating the African American community about the benefits of healthy eating, exercise and staying active in your survival.

Lynda Johnson is serving on the board of The Heimerdinger Foundation which provides organic meals free-of-charge for cancer patients undergoing treatment in Davidson and Williamson county.  She is very passionate about the mission of The Heimerdinger Foundation because she is a former client and a cancer survivor.

Thank you Dr. Linda Sealy for your dedication working with the CURE students!

Last summer the VICC CURE program hosted 4 undergraduate and 4 high school summer research students in VICC labs.   The students and their faculty hosts are:

Malek Jacobs (Chris Williams, M.D., Ph.D.)
Christina Wang (Bill Tansey, Ph.D.)
Sara Duque (Alicia Beeghly-Fadiel, Ph.D.)
Antonio Glenn (Michael King, Ph.D.)
Anastasia Shotak (Marjan Rafat, Ph.D.)
Jimmy Barajas (Adrian Olivares, Ph.D)
Chelisi Uriri (Barbara Fingleton, Ph.D.)
Zulema Elvira (Julie Sterling, Ph.D.)

Our high school students are in the process of selecting colleges.  So far Jimmy has been accepted to Purdue University where he plans to study engineering.  He plans to spend another summer in the CURE program, joining Julie Sterling’s lab. Anastasia has continued in the CURE program while finishing her senior year at Hume Fogg Magnet high school, and we are looking forward to finding out about her future plans as well as those of Chelisi and Zulema.  Overall the VICC CURE program is helping talented young scholars discover career opportunities in cancer research.

Congratulations are in order for Malek Jacobs and Christina Wang; both were recipients of 2018 Lou DeFelice Travel Awards.  This award, sponsored by the Dean of Basic Sciences, Dr. Larry Marnett, enables both the student and their faculty mentor to attend the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) to present posters on their summer research (see photos).  Malek, who is finishing up his senior year at Cornell, recently interviewed to join the Vanderbilt IGP program. We hope to see Malek back at Vanderbilt for his Ph.D. training.

Christina, who received a poster award at ABRCMS, is currently completing her senior year at Vanderbilt where she continues to be part of the VICC CURE program. Christina is applying to Postbaccalaureate programs for fall 2019, and we hope to see her application to graduate school in 2020.  Both Sara (University of Georgia) and Antonio (Vanderbilt) are completing their junior year, and Antonio will be continuing with the CURE program in the summer.

Send us your news

Have a suggestion for a Cancer Biology newsletter item? Do you have an announcement or an upcoming event you want to share with the Cancer Biology community?

E-mail: kerry.w.vazquez@vanderbilt.edu

Newsletter header photo credit to Dr. Anna Vilgelm, “DNA Comets”.
Clip art photo credit to google images.
Mary Philips article credited to VUMC reporter