Lucas Brand

E-mail: brand466@umn.edu

Year entered: 2008

Thesis Advisor: Scott Dehm

Degrees received:
B.S., University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN

Thesis research:
Androgen receptor (AR) activity is an important mediator of prostate cancer growth and progression. It has been shown that macrophages, through the production of IL-1beta, can contribute to prostate cancer progression by modulating AR activity. On a molecular level, IL-1beta signaling can convert antiandrogens such as bicalutamide to AR agonistis by changing the transcriptional regulators present at gene promoters containing androgen response elements. Thus, antiandrogen therapy—the main form of treatment for men with advanced prostate cancer—can be rendered ineffective by IL-1beta. My research currently seeks to understand the role of IL-1beta in prostate tumors bearing alternatively spliced isoforms of the AR that lack the ligand binding domain. Our overall goal is to devise novel approaches to inhibiting AR activity in prostate cancer that has become resistant to antiandrogens as well as other forms of AR-targeted treatments.

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