Cancer
Faculty Investigator Sara Cooper, PhD , and her research team specialize in uncovering the genetic factors that contribute to various cancers, including those affecting the breast, ovaries, pancreas, and colon. By studying how ovarian cancer cells and immune cells interact in a cell culture dish, Dr. Cooper’s lab is learning how ovarian cancer tumors hide from our body’s immune defenses. This work will lead to a model that will help cancer researchers everywhere understand the critical relationship between cancer cells and our bodies. The goal is to identify more targeted treatments for patients whose cancer has stopped responding to chemotherapy. Dr. Cooper and her team have also made strides toward identifying previously unknown genetic variants for breast cancer. As part of a pilot study with Clearview Cancer Institute , Dr. Cooper’s team has sequenced genomes from patients with a strong family history of cancer at a young age, who do not have a known genetic cause for their cancer. The study has yielded promising results, potentially leading to the identification of new cancer genes that can be targeted in further research. IDENTIFYING TARGETED TREATMENTS
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