Alexis Wilson, fifth-year doctoral student in the Wayne State University (WSU) School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute’s Cancer Biology Graduate Program, received the Best Oral Presentation Award at the eighth International Bone Marrow Adiposity Conference, held Sept. 24-26 in Montreal.
The title of her presentation was “Tumor adaptive response to adipocyte-induced stress in bone metastatic niche: the functional interplay between Stearoyl -CoA desaturase and ATF4.”
“I was very surprised when my name was called. It was unexpected and I was extremely grateful. This was a very specialized group of scientists, and I was already honored to have been selected to present my work to them in an oral presentation form,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s travel to the conference was supported by the Mary Lou Zieve Award for Professional Development, which she received from the Cancer Biology Graduate Program in February. The award is offered annually to a senior Cancer Biology student to attend a specialized training opportunity or scientific conference that will significantly impact their research.
Wilson’s research received additional accolades at three meetings this year. She received a first-place poster award at the Jackson Laboratory Short Course on Experimental Models of Human Cancer in 2023, a fourth-place poster award at the Prostate Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence Meeting in March, and a first-place oral presentation award at WSU’s annual Cancer Biology Symposium, in February.
She is mentored by Izabela Podgorski, Ph.D., co-leader of the Prostate Cancer Research Team and a member of the Tumor Biology and Microenvironment Research Program at Karmanos, as well as professor of pharmacology at WSU. Dr. Podgorski’s lab focuses on the interaction between prostate cancer cells that have metastasized to bone and bone marrow fat cells.
“We study this interaction to understand the mechanisms in which bone marrow fat cells contribute to prostate cancer progression in bone. The objective of my project and the work I presented is to investigate the mechanisms underlying lipid-induced stress during adipocyte-cancer cell crosstalk and determine its functional relationship to cancer progression in bone,” Wilson said.
Her presentation showcased that bone marrow adipocytes induce an enzyme named stearoyl -CoA desaturase, or SCD, in prostate cancer cells, an important regulator of stress, and allows prostate cancer cells to survive in bone by regulating DNA damage and lipid peroxidation levels.
“We also found that SCD works together with a very important transcription factor named ATF4, which is also involved in regulating stress,” she said. “Our findings lead us to believe that bone marrow fat cells induce SCD in prostate cancer cells, to shield cancer cells from stress through crosstalk with ATF4 to foster cancer cell survival in bone. These insights enhance our understanding of how prostate cancer cells survive and thrive in the bone environment and reveal potential drug targets for bone metastatic prostate cancer.”
The work is part of her doctoral thesis, funded by an F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Cancer Institute. This program enables promising predoctoral students to develop into productive independent research scientists to obtain mentored research training while conducting dissertation research.
“I am very proud of Alexis. This award is yet another testament to her impressive accomplishments as a Ph.D. student in the Cancer Biology Program,” Dr. Podgorski said. “The Bone Marrow Adiposity Society is an international organization composed of basic and clinical scientists dedicated to understanding the role of bone marrow adipose tissue in health and disease. Being selected for a podium presentation at this specialized conference is already a significant honor but winning the sole award for a podium presentation truly recognizes Alexis’s excellence and potential as a rising young scientist.”
Originally published at Today@Wayne.