Deeann Wallis-Schultz
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Genetics
Up to a third of breast cancers have lost a working copy of NF1, a gene whose protein normally keeps cell-growth signals in check. Patients with NF1 loss tend to be diagnosed younger, respond less well to treatment, and have poorer outcomes.
- Fields
Genetics
Medicine & Clinical Research
Biology
- Topics
neurofibromin
breast cancer
estrogen receptor
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2030
What they work on
- Track tumor onset, growth, histology and molecular changes in Ras and estrogen signaling over time in Nf1 knockin (p.R1276Q) and knockout rats, comparing findings with human breast tumor samples.
- Characterize the tumor microenvironment, the immune and support cells surrounding Nf1-deficient rat mammary tumors, to identify immune targets, then test immune-directed therapy with and without Ras-targeting drugs.
- Determine which hormones initiate versus maintain Nf1-deficient mammary tumors, which arise during pregnancy in knockin females, and test hormone-blocking treatments alone and combined with Ras inhibitors.
- Build patient-variant induced pluripotent stem cell lines matched to animal models, profile variant-driven gene expression changes, and screen computationally predicted drugs against them.
- Deliver quality control, specialized phenotyping, cryopreservation and distribution of disease models generated by the center, supplying validated models to internal and external investigators.
More about the research
Understanding why has been slowed by a shortage of animal models that both develop human-like hormone-driven tumors and keep a normal immune system. Work here pairs new genetic rat models of NF1-related breast cancer with a shared service that builds, validates and distributes animal and cell models of human disease variants.
Why it matters
Hormone receptor–positive disease accounts for roughly 80% of breast cancer cases, and NF1 loss marks patients at risk of earlier onset, worse outcomes and resistance to hormone therapy such as tamoxifen. Rat models with intact immune systems may sharpen prognosis for these patients and reveal combinations of Ras-targeting, hormone-targeting and immune-targeting drugs worth testing. The modeling resource could shorten the path from an uncertain patient gene variant to a validated model and candidate therapy.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jonathan Coloff
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Biochemistry
Determine whether luminal breast tumors, which cannot make the amino acid serine, shrink or stop growing when mice are fed a serine-free diet.
Jing Yang
University of California-San Diego, CA·Biochemistry
Determine how the Hippo pathway, through the LATS1/2 kinases, controls transcription of ESR1, the main estrogen receptor gene, in breast cells and what ESR1 contributes to Hippo biology in breast tissue.
Sean Fanning
Loyola University Chicago, IL·Pharmacology
Determine how a library of more than 100 SERMs and SERDs bind to and reshape mutant Y537S estrogen receptor alpha, using X-ray co-crystal structures and anti-cancer assays in breast cancer cells.
The school
University of Alabama at Birmingham: 45 labs on PI Pages, $866M a year on research, 166 research doctorates a year.
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