On June 29, 2005, Dr. Joyce Schroeder '92, UBRP alum (Dr. John Marchalonis's lab, Immunology & Microbiology and Dr. Vas Aposhian's lab, MCB) and now a faculty sponsor in Molecular & Cellular Biology, presented a seminar on her research on breast cancer. Once everybody was situated with their coffee and Danish, Dr. Schroeder explained her research surrounding the effects of specific proteins in the epithelial cells that line the ducts in the mammalian breast, and their effect on the proliferation of cancerous cells. Specifically, she is doing research on the MUC1 protein and its interaction with the erbB receptor protein.

Through her research, Dr. Schroeder has discovered that when MUC1is over expressed and interacts with erbB, which in normal cells do not come in contact due to polarization, it inhibits the degradation of the active erbB complex and therefore the cells do not undergo apoptosis, as they should. Dr. Schroeder and her lab are now working on possible drug treatments that would inhibit the interaction of MUC1 with erbB that have the potential of stopping this form of breast cancer before it even starts.

We also learned that cancer is the leading cause of death in people under 85 (the leading cause of death in those over 85 is heart disease)) in the USA today, and breast cancer is the second most deadly of the cancers, second only to lung cancer. With the research that is being done here at the University of Arizona, it is better understood every day. UBRP students and alums are working hard to understand the intricacies of cancer and use that understanding to prevent cancer from claiming more lives.

Christine Williams, UBRPer in Dr. Murray Brilliant’s laboratory, Pediatrics