Halting Kidney Cancer

What biomedical issues did you address in your research, and what did your studies find?

My research focused on exploring mechanisms driving the metastasis of kidney cancer. Once kidney tumor cells begin to metastasize, stopping or reversing the spread of the disease becomes difficult, often resulting in poor outcomes for patients. Few treatments exist to address metastases. Those that are available, mostly targeting individual genes, have limitations — for instance, low response rates or eventual chemotherapy resistance after prolonged treatment.

Understanding kidney cancer at an epigenetic level may provide additional opportunities to interfere with the metastatic process. Epigenetics is a growing area of research that looks at modifications in gene expression rather than changes in genes themselves. My thesis project studied how mutations in an epigenetic regulator drive a process known as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, or EMT, that changes cells on the outer layer of organs into undifferentiated cells. Even though EMT occurs naturally in the body, it’s also known to be part of tumor progression, making cancerous cells more migratory and invasive, and allowing them to metastasize to other tissues and organs.

My studies looked at CRISPR-cas9-engineered kidney cancer cell lines and involved the analysis of omics — the large-scale information available in gene expression. My studies found several key proteins — specifically, transcription factors that turn genes on and off at controlled rates — involved in EMT that could be promising therapeutic targets for metastatic kidney disease. Our team has publications currently in progress, and Dr. Robertson’s lab will continue to investigate the transcription factors that we identified.

How did the research environment at Mayo Clinic contribute to the success of your projects?

One unique aspect of Mayo’s research environment is the culture of collaboration, which happens across labs and even across campuses. Dr. Robertson’s lab collaborates with hematologist-oncologist Thai Ho, M.D., Ph.D., a clinician-scientist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona who also conducts research in the epigenetic control of cancer development. He provided cell lines and tissue samples that were essential to my research.

Another unique aspect, and the reason I chose Mayo for graduate school, is the attention that’s given to patient care and the focus on disease-related research. Mayo’s research environment helped me further understand how basic science results can be the foundation of translational research that leads to cures for patients.

How has your experience at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences prepared you for your future career?

In addition to the benchwork science involved in my research, I had the opportunity to learn how to analyze and understand big data, such as RNA-seq and ChIP-seq. These skills will be essential for the biomedical workforce of the future. My next role will be as a postdoctoral fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to continue the exciting research about how the epigenome controls cancer metastasis.