Christopher Y's Senior Project Blog
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Project Title: Investigating the Role of the C-Terminal Domain in the CXCR3 Receptor in Breast Cancer Cell Metastasis BASIS Advisor: William Schaffer Internship Location: University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix Onsite Mentor: Professor Suwon Kim |
Project Abstract
Topic My project focuses on triple-negative breast cancer metastasis, specifically investigating the role of chemokine Cxcr3’s C-terminal domain. Significance Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) lacks common breast cancer receptors (estrogen, progesterone, and HER2) that can be targeted by therapeutics. With current treatments, over 40% of women with TNBC see recurrence within 5 years, and less than 12% with distant metastatic TNBC survive past 5 years. The project hypothesis is that “the carboxyl-terminal domain of Cxcr3 is required for Cxcl10 induced ING4-deficient breast cancer cell migration.” In addition, the results may address if the third intracellular loop of Cxcr3 can incite migration without the carboxyl-terminus. This project will provide insight into the function of the C-terminal domain of Cxcr3 in TNBC metastasis, which could have implications in future treatment options for TNBC. These findings may improve TNBC patient outcomes. Lastly, I believe my final presentation might shed light on the importance of signaling molecules in TNBC, seeing as there are currently limited treatment options for the disease. Methods and Goals I will start by consolidating the previous work I have done on a Cxcr3 mutant and reviewing other research articles on the chemokine receptor. In the lab, I plan to troubleshoot the unsuccessful western blot procedure from my previous work. I will examine the restriction enzyme digest performed on the retroviral vector to confirm successful vector insertion. The end goal is to compare the cell line expressing my mutant gene to normal breast cancer cells for cell migration.
Conclusion/Reflection and Future Project Direction
Hello everyone, Thank you for keeping up with my senior project throughout this 10 week program! This experience has been really eye-opening, and I got to see first hand how much work is involved in cancer research. In particular, there are so many steps necessary before entering a lab like gathering background information on the... Read More
Week 10 – In Lab PCR Process and Project Observations
Hello everyone, This week I was able to complete the PCR process I designed earlier. After going over the procedure with my mentor, I ran two groups in the PCR, one with my DNA and the testing primers and one with the same DNA and the original insert primers (mentioned in my first blog post).... Read More
Week 9 – Final Product Drafting and Creating an Experiment
Hello everyone, This week, my mentor was gone Monday-Wednesday, but I was able to get work done on my final product and make an experiment procedure. For my final product, I have decided to make a scientific poster. The first thing I started with was a template for the poster on powerpoint. As shown in... Read More
Week 8 – DNA Fragment Lengths
Hello everyone, I was unable to access the lab this week because my on-site mentor was traveling. Instead, I worked on understanding the DNA fragments from my vector+insert and created a PCR procedure for when I return to the lab. First, I looked at the vector (pBABE-neo) to analyze the fragments it would form when... Read More
Week 7 – Analyzing RE Digests and Considering Project Direction
Hello everyone, Restriction enzyme digests are used to cut DNA into fragments. Then, these fragments can be analyzed with gel electrophoresis that separates these fragments by size (smaller fragments traveling farther). This week, I started my project work by looking at my previous gel digests on the vector and "Cxcr3delC" insert (the vector delivers the... Read More
Week 6 – Starting Lab Work and Interpreting Graph
Hello everyone, This week I was in San Diego for spring break and was unable to get much work done on the project. For this blog post, I will be describing the lab activities I started last week and do some more bioinformatics work. Last week, I had a lab orientation on Monday where our... Read More
Week 5 – Understanding the Graph
Hello everyone, This week I was able to address the issue I had with the Cxcl10 graph from my previous post. The graph from my mentor's paper analyzed data from a different data set (GDS806) than the METABRIC data set I used last week. Additionally, I had shortened the amount of samples from a few... Read More
Week 4 – Bioinformatics Work
Hello everyone, This week my mentor taught me how to analyze gene expression and clinical data from cbioportal.org. This website is an open-source platform with large cancer genomic datasets. Using METABRIC breast cancer data, I was able to create a spreadsheet with gene expression data for ING4, Cxcl10, Cxcr3, and EGFR and clinical data including... Read More
Week 3 – Description of PCR Process
Hello everyone, I spent Monday to Wednesday at the senior trip and was unable to make much progress this week. However, over the weekend I was able to start some bioinformatics that I will use next week. Currently, my plan for week 4 is to analyze breast cancer data from cbioportal.org and examine my last... Read More
Week 2 – Description of Designing Primers and Trainings
Hello everyone, As described in the previous blog post, the hypothesis was that the cytoplasmic portion of Cxcr3 was important in interacting with downstream components for cell migratory signaling in TNBC. My goal was to create a Cxcr3 mutant with a c-terminal deletion. I designed primers for a PCR process to clone the mutant gene.... Read More
Week 1 – Description of the Cxcr3 Receptor
Hello everyone, For the topic of this week's blog post, please view the attached figure of the structure of Cxcr3 (Fig. 1). As described in the previous blog post, Cxcr3 is a seven transmembrane domain G protein-coupled receptor that is used to signal chemotaxis in lymphocytes (as a part of an immune system response). Additionally,... Read More
Introduction to Project on the Role of the C-terminal domain of Cxcr3 in Cxcl10-induced Breast Cancer Cell Migration
Introduction Hello new readers! Welcome to my senior project updates page. My project is focused on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) metastasis. My name is Christopher Yoo, and I had the opportunity to work for 8 weeks as a summer intern in a breast cancer research lab at the Translational Genomics Research Institute. My summer research... Read More