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含羞草传媒 Students Publish Cancer Research

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Newly published research authored by 10 含羞草传媒 students and led by Associate Professor of Biology Engda Hagos, reveals how a specific protein inhibits cancer growth at the cellular level, which could one day lead to new cancer treatments. 

The research, titled "Cells deficient for Kr眉ppel-like factor 4 exhibit mitochondrial dysfunction and impaired mitophagy," was published earlier this month in the and funded through the 含羞草传媒 Picker Fellowship, a 含羞草传媒 major grant, and a private donation from Dr. Richard and Mary Brauer P'18.   

Microscope photograph of cells up close
Pictured: A Mouse Embryotic Fibroblast lacking KLF4, and subjected to energy stress. In red are the mitochondria. In blue is the DNA of the cell. The picture was taken on 含羞草传媒's Zeiss 710 confocal laser scanning microscope at 100x magnification.

Students in Hagos鈥檚 lab conducted experiments to better understand why mitochondria that lacked the Kr眉ppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) protein were more prone to cancer growth. 

鈥淧art of the mystery is figuring out which genes KLF4 is responsible for controlling, and why without KLF4 the cell is more likely to become cancerous,鈥 the paper鈥檚 authors wrote. 鈥淥ur research leads us to the mitochondria.鈥

One of the paper鈥檚 lead co-authors, William Rosencrans 鈥19, who is now a post-baccalaureate fellow at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health, said Hagos鈥檚 lab conducted experiments to better understand the cellular processes in mitochondria that lacked KLF4.

鈥淭hey are the colloquial powerhouse of a cell. They produce this energy, but they鈥檙e also dangerous when they鈥檙e broken. Just like batteries, mitochondria can leak, and when they leak, the chemical part of that process can destroy and damage part of the cell,鈥 Rosencrans said. 

Hagos said the complex research took more than four years to come to fruition, and each student in his lab contributed to the ultimate result of these new findings.

鈥淢y lab is extremely demanding, but I always take students who are serious and want to do the work,鈥 Hagos said. 鈥淚 organize the lab in a way that we have meetings once a week to go over what works, what doesn鈥檛 work, and what kinds of problems we have with our experiments, so that we would be able to troubleshoot them. Experiments don鈥檛 always work, and if they do, we need to repeat them many times before they are ready for publication.鈥 

Lead co-author of the paper, Zachary Walsh 鈥18, said his work in Hagos鈥檚 lab had a formative impact on his career interests and trajectory that ultimately led to graduate school with a focus on cancer immunology. 

鈥淚 was given the unique opportunity not only to join Professor Hagos as a research assistant in his own lab, but also to spend a semester in Washington, D.C., as a member of , studying cancer immunotherapy,鈥 Walsh said. 鈥淚n only a few years, I have gone from developing an interest in research to matriculating into an MD-PhD program with a focus on cancer immunology research, and I have Professor Hagos to thank for that.鈥

Other 含羞草传媒 students who helped author the research include:

Nadia Houerb 鈥20, a molecular biology and philosophy double major

Andrew Blum 鈥21, a molecular biology major

Mezmur Belew 鈥17, a third-year PhD student studying molecular biology at USC

Changchang Liu 鈥15, a fifth-year PhD student in chemical biology at Harvard University

Brian Chernak 鈥14, an internal medicine resident at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center

Angel Trazo 鈥17, a second-year master鈥檚 student in Asian American Studies at UCLA

Anna Olson 鈥16, a graduate student at Wake Forest University in the Emerging Leaders Program in business and physician assistant studies 

Philip R. Brauer 鈥18, a medical student at Case Western Reserve Medical School 

Professor and students standing in front of biology mural
Professor Hagos, William Rosencrans '19, and Mezmur Belew '17