Kevin Williams
North Carolina Central University, NC·Biology
Two health problems unite this work: birth defects caused by alcohol during pregnancy, and aggressive breast cancers that hit some populations harder than others. In both, the lab looks for the molecular signals and cell-to-cell interactions behind poor outcomes, with the goal of finding ways to intervene.
- Fields
Biology
Genetics
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
prenatal alcohol exposure
teratogenesis
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Test how candidate genes, identified as altered in ethanol-exposed mouse limb buds by RNA sequencing, rescue or worsen alcohol-induced fin and limb defects, using gene knockouts in cells, zebrafish and mice.
- Identify small molecules that rescue or worsen the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure, using high-throughput screening of focused chemical libraries in cells, zebrafish embryos and mice.
- Identify population-specific mechanisms by which immune and stromal cells around the tumor drive progression of aggressive basal-like and inflammatory breast cancers.
- Examine how hepatocyte growth factor signaling interacts with the immune microenvironment of normal breast and tumor tissue to influence differences in breast cancer outcomes.
More about the research
Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), which include face and limb defects. Alcohol disrupts sonic hedgehog (Shh), a signaling pathway that guides how the embryo forms, and animals with reduced Shh signaling are more vulnerable to alcohol-induced defects. This project uses cell lines, zebrafish and mice, studying the developing zebrafish fin and mouse limb, to find genes and chemicals that worsen or rescue the effects of ethanol. The first approach uses gene knockouts to test candidate genes whose activity changed in ethanol-exposed mouse limb buds in the team's earlier RNA sequencing study. The second uses high-throughput screening, rapid testing of many compounds, to find small molecules that rescue or worsen fin and limb defects. NCCU faculty and trainees will carry out the work with mentorship from UNC's Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies.
Why it matters
Learning which genes and compounds change sensitivity to alcohol-induced birth defects could, over time, inform clinical practice and reduce the number and severity of FASD cases. Uncovering how tumor surroundings drive aggressive basal-like and inflammatory breast cancers could provide a basis for new ways to target these cancers in the patients who die of them at higher rates.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Johann Eberhart
University of Texas at Austin, TX·Biology
Characterize how reactive oxygen species (ROS), damaging reactive molecules, contribute to ethanol-induced birth defects, using genetic screens in zebrafish embryos.
Erin Milligan
University of New Mexico, NM·Neuroscience
Test whether circular RNAs (circRNAs), non-coding RNAs that regulate genes, disrupted by prenatal alcohol exposure are necessary and sufficient for working-memory deficits triggered by minor stressors in adolescent mice.
Sarah Mattson Weller
San Diego State University, CA·Psychology
Measure how accurately the FASD-Tree, a web tool recording physical and behavioral features, and BRAIN-online, a web-based cognitive test, classify children aged 6–17 with FASD, alone and combined, by sensitivity and specificity.
The school
North Carolina Central University: 4 labs on PI Pages, $16M a year on research, 2 research doctorates a year.
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