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Pamela Kreeger
August 20, 2020

Kreeger lands new grant to study ovarian cancer metastasis mechanisms

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Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Pamela Kreeger will use a new $2.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to continue her research into the spread of ovarian cancer.

Through the new grant, Kreeger’s lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will examine the specific mechanisms behind metastasis—the spread of cancer cells from the original tumor to secondary sites—in high-grade serous ovarian cancer, the most aggressive and common form of the disease. That spread occurs when either single cells or aggregates of cells break away from the tumor, float through the fluid filling the abdominal cavity and then reattach to the membranes lining this cavity.

Kreeger will work with UW-Madison collaborators Alejandro Roldan-Alzate (assistant professor of mechanical engineering), Suzanne Ponik (senior scientist in the Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology), Lisa Barroilhet (Dolores A. Buchler, MD Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology) and Stephanie McGregor (assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine) to probe the differences between single-cell or aggregate-based metastasis.

By better understanding the processes behind ovarian cancer metastasis, Kreeger hopes her work can uncover opportunities to slow the spread of the disease and improve patient outcomes.


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