Summer 2020 Remote Research

This past summer, I worked remotely in the Cell Death Laboratory under Dr. Gayathri Devi, contributing to a review manuscript on inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) with an emphasis on its key characteristic apoptotic dysregulation. Due to my interests in the interactions of the immune system and cancer, I compiled and summarized literature from key research groups and papers involved in the tumor microenvironment of IBC and incorporated this information into writing the section on how IBC avoids immune destruction. I did the same for the section on apoptotic signaling in IBC, where I was able to intertwine my own research projects and observations from my experiments with the current literature on how the overexpression of Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins (IAPs) allow for IBC’s resistance to cell death. Furthermore, I wrote sections on the relevant in vitro and in vivo models of IBC, detailing how IBC has been studied using, for instance, treatment resistant lines, 3D spheroids, and tumor emboli. Aside from the review manuscript, I was able to analyze cell proliferation and viability data relating to the drug Birinapant and access additional resources using this grant, which contributed to furthering my understanding of how data to critically read data and incorporate this information into writing.