Krizia Chambers, Graduate Student, Biomedical Sciences and Engineering

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. To help spread awareness of the different cancers that impact children, we will be profiling a different researcher each week to talk about the cancer they study and how they hope their research will help in the fight against childhood cancer.  

What type of cancer are you researching?

My current research is focused on Osteosarcoma. The disease is a type of bone cancer that develops in children, teens, and young adults and originates in the cells that form the bones. The tumors that develop from this specific type of cancer cells mimic early forms of bone cells that normally help make new bone tissue, but the bone tissue in an osteosarcoma is not as strong as that of normal bones.

How do you hope your research will help children with cancer?

I aim to gain insights into the basis and development of a patient’s cancer and identify genes that are unusually highly expressed. I also hope to identify perturbed regulons [a group of several genes that are turned on or off in response to the same protein signal] and gene regulatory networks that are closely related to diseases observed in Osteosarcoma. Knowing these regulons could allow Treehouse to find actionable drug targets and identify drug treatments.

What do you want people to know about childhood cancer and/or cancer research? 

There are a wide variety of childhood cancers, all with different signs, symptoms, treatments, and outcomes. We are proud today to say that most kids have a better survival outcome than in the past, but in some rare cancers this outlook is not as encouraging. Continuing research efforts in this field makes world of difference and leads to tomorrow’s treatments and cures. We can make a difference and give hope for a brighter future!

Anything else you want people to know about your research? 

Together we can continue to find cures and bring awareness to pediatric cancer!