In 2018, Dr. Sofia S. Origanti, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was awarded a $20,000 Markos Family Breast Cancer Research Grant to support her development as a leader in breast cancer research. At that time, she and her team hoped to explore the role of eIF6 (a protein) as a driver in the formation and progression of human breast cancers. “This grant will extend our work to explore the role of eIF6, and long-term, we anticipate that these exciting projects will lead to significant discoveries.”
Two years later, we’re reconnecting with Dr. Origanti to see what she’s been up to since being administered the funds, and boy – are there some exciting discoveries!
WWHF: You recently reached out to us to share that some of your work helped by the Markos Grant is being published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Congratulations!
Dr. Origanti: Thank you! The “Regulation of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 6 dynamics through multisite phosphorylation by GSK3” is in press right now, and we wanted to thank you, Marquette University and Saint Louis University for supporting our research and work.
WWHF: It’s really exciting to see the impact that the grant is having! Can you explain in layman’s terms what the work you’re referring to is all about?
Dr. Origanti: In cancer cells, growth is uncontrollable and rapid. What we are trying to understand within these cells is what are the mechanisms that control them? One of the potential mechanisms is eIF6, a protein which helps with protein production normally, but in cancer cells is overexpressed. By understanding how eIF6 works in cells and how its overexpression leads to cancer, we can then determine if targeting eIF6 will help to slow down cancer growth, especially breast cancer.
WWHF: Fascinating! And what have been your findings?
Dr. Origanti: We uncovered a novel mechanism that can regulate eIF6 function in cells under conditions of stress (specifically starvation). That’s what our published paper is all about. However, since cancer is also a form of cellular stress, these findings will help us to better understand eIF6 function in cancers as well.
We actually have some exciting preliminary data showing that eIF6 is overexpressed only in certain aggressive breast cancer cell lines – possibly contributing to its invasiveness.
WWHF: What a discovery for breast cancer research!
Dr. Origanti: It is. And without the funding from the Markos Grant, it might not have been possible. We would have kept our research to exploring the role of eIF6 in cells in general. But because Markos was breast cancer-focused, we had proposed to test eIF6 expression in aggressive types of breast cancer lines, and then we made this really cool discovery about overexpression and its correlation with a highly invasive subtype of breast cancer.
WWHF: Wow! How else did the Markos Grant impact your work?
Dr. Origanti: Well, in general, it paid for this eIF6 work that my students and I did during the summer. During the summers, we’re in the lab and advancing our research, but we aren’t paid for it without funding from federal and private grants. I am quite grateful to have the Markos funding to support my time for summer research on eIF6 role in breast cancers. The grant gave us the ability to venture into breast cancer research (an interest of mine that stems from familial history). It also helped us to train students and personnel.
WWHF: Sounds like it has really shaped your own trajectory, but also that of future researchers.
Dr. Origanti: Courtney Jungers, a Wisconsin native woman student, Dr. Daniela Masson-Meyers, a Wisconsin resident and Jonah Elliff, now an MD student from Iowa are the other authors on the paper with me. And the work specific to breast cancer cell lines was carried out by Joseph Loredo, an African American student and McNair Scholar, who presented his work as a poster at the Undergraduate Research Day at Marquette University. So absolutely — this funding has been important for all of us, and I’m so proud of them!