Breast Cancer and Gene Expression Patterns

Lara Anastasia Colombo, Verrazzano Class of 2023, completed major in Biology and minor in Psychology

My deep fascination with medicine stems back to childhood. From a young age, I vividly recall my admiration growing over time for physicians as well as their white coats and stethoscopes draped around their necks.

I entered college as a pre-med student, with a major in general biology and a minor in psychology. I began forming a strong foundation as early as my first semester of college, which allowed me to pursue an area of research that captivated me.

In my sophomore year I was introduced to my mentor, Dr. Nancy Liu-Sulllivan, whose guidance tremendously enhanced my research experience for the next three years. My participation in the CUNY Research Scholars Program facilitated this introduction. After completing the program with two years of research and presenting numerous times at the associated conferences, I was equipped to formulate and delve deeper into my capstone project.

The primary focus of my capstone involved investigating and comparing patient survival with gene expression patterns of HLA Class I gene expression in metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Despite all the progress made, cancer remains a challenging disease. Aggressive cancer types, MBC and GBM, continue to pose a challenge to treatment efficacy and overall patient survival. For context, human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) are vital for the immune system to thrive due to the ability to regulate immune responses as well as detect foreign cells or agents that are then transferred to T-cell receptors. Understanding the role of HLAs helps better characterize and understand how these aggressive cancer types evade immune defense. This information is also beneficial in providing potential candidates for therapeutic targets in glioblastoma multiforme and metastatic breast cancer.

In my college career I had a desire to attain leadership positions, particularly one tied to a cause that resonated with me. In my junior year, I was a club council representative of the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative Club and I was elected president my senior year. As president, it allowed me to further my research pursuits with a similar area of study, another aggressive cancer type. This capstone project gave me the opportunity to tie all that I have learned throughout these past four years into one paper as well as an additional presentation. This area of study is remarkably rewarding since the findings of statistically significant over- or under-expressed HLA Class I genes along with exploring the potential influence cytokines may have on HLA genes could help shed more light on the interaction between immunity and cancer.