Mariangellys Rodriguez

E-mail: rodri242@umn.edu

Year entered: 2007

Thesis Advisor: David Potter

Degree received:
B.S., Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, 2007

Honors and Awards:

• Graduate School DOVE Fellowship, 2007-2008
• American Association for Cancer Research (AARC) Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award, April 2009
• Top 3% poster/abstract recognition AARC, April 2009
• Records Chair of the Association of Multicultural Scientists, May 2009-
• Department of Medicine’s Research Day Poster Competition Award 2009

Thesis research:

My research project studies the role of lipid metabolism in breast cancer progression. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the US. The risk of breast cancer is increased by hormonal factors and gain of weight during adulthood. It is known that hormones such as estrogen and insulin-like growth factors (IGF) increase the risk of breast cancer mainly by promoting the growth of breast epithelium. However, the signaling pathway by which hormone factors affect breast cancer has not been elucidated. Moreover, the biological mechanism by which weight gain affects breast cancer is not understood. The long-term goal of my project is to understand how both hormonal signaling and bioactive food components cooperate to influence the development of breast cancer. The proposed studies will investigate the role of hormone signaling (specifically, IGF1) and the metabolism of a dietary lipid (eicosapentaenoic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid commonly found in fish oil) in the proliferation and survival of breast cancer cells. Preliminary studies indicated that insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) induces cytochrome P450 1A1 (CYP1A1) expression in breast cancer. CYP1A1 metabolizes omega-3 fatty acid EPA into 17(18)-epoxyeicosatetraenoic acid, which is a potential promoter of tumor progression. The hypothesis to be tested is that cytochrome P450 1A1, induced by activated IGF1 receptor, metabolizes eicosapentaenoic acid into 17(18)-epoxyeicosatetraenoic acid, thereby promoting breast cancer proliferation and survival.