Quinton L. Anderson
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Research Interests:
Harnessing Mitochondrial Dysfunction as a Target
for Cancer Therapy.
Cancer is the number one cause of death for
Texans under the age of 85 and is the second
most common cause of death worldwide (American
Cancer Society, 2016). Through all the research
and money spent, we have found out that cancer
is not a monolithic disease with a single cause.
We have also found out that there is not any
drug or treatment option that can cure all
cancers. We know that cancers often have
different metabolomics than the surrounding
normal tissue, and it has been shown that
cancers often have mitochondria with
dysregulated function. In normal tissues,
dysfunctional mitochondria are degraded via
mitophagy (selective autophagy of the
mitochondria). With damaged and dysfunctional
mitochondria, one can theorize that cancer cells
will be susceptible to mitotoxins. My focus is
to use C. elegans to find out which tumor
suppressor genes, when missing, are more
susceptible to mitotoxins, and to form a gene
network map based from the susceptible genes.
After the gene network has be confirmed we will
obtain cancer cell lines with mutations in our
confirmed genes and test whether mammalian
cancer cells are more susceptible to mitotoxins
then healthy cells. Eventually xenografts
derived from patient’s tumors will be tested to
determine the relevance of mitotoxins being used
as a new therapy option. This is a novel idea
that mitotoxins, or any small molecule that
induces mitophagy, can be used as a
combinatorial cancer therapeutic with
conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy. |