After three weeks in the lab, I feel like I’ve simultaneously learned a lot and yet still failed to learn much at all, if my alarmingly regular mess-ups are an of indicator of my success in that department. However, at the very least, I hope that I can concisely and successfully explain here what my project is, and what I hope to accomplish with. If not the least because my secondary mentor has walked me through it more times than I’d like to disclose.
I am primarily looking at the role of CYR-61 in cancer progression. CYR-61 is an matricellular protein, which means it is secreted out into the extracellular matrix or ECM. Through interactions with proteins embedded in cell surfaces called integrins, it can induce a variety of behaviors such as adhesion, migration, proliferation, differentiation, and angiogenesis. The numerous papers I’ve looked at have provided me with some background on this protein, and explain that there is lots of evidence that CYR-61 is critical for some cancer progressing behaviors, and its presence is important in determining the aggressiveness of particular cancers. By using things called shRNAs/siRNAs, which can “silence” proteins through various methods, researchers have found that without CYR-61 migration can be blocked, epithelial markers can increase, and tumor-initiating capabilities can be hurt. What I’m getting at is this particular protein has demonstrated that is potentially very important to tumor growth and initiation, and thus could be an ideal target for chemotherapies in the future.
This is where I step in with my project. I am examining the effects that CYR-61 has on different cells, by treating them with CYR-61 recombinant protein. Another important thing I have learned about working in a lab: science is really expensive. We had to purchase the protein for my experiment and my mind spun at how expensive two measly microliters (that’s right…microliters) of reagent could be. I’m looking at whether CYR-61 can induce migration, proliferation, and signalling– essentially covering all the bases of cancer progressive behavior. In relating this back to the Blobe lab’s overarching focus on TGF-B, I am also looking at whether treating cells with TGF-B can induce CYR-61 expression. To make it more interesting, I’m doing this with cells that can and can’t express SMAD4, which is a protein critical in the canonical kinase signalling pathway of TGF-B. Essentially, we’re trying to see if TGF-B still has an effect on those cells. Furthermore, my secondary mentor has a focus on pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs)and their role in pancreatic cancer, so I have also been seeing whether secretate from PSCs can induce CYR-61 in cells.
Whew. Still having a hard time wrapping my head around it all. Fingers crossed that week 4 will be fruitful…
