SFB 1213 seminar series - Guest speaker Michelle Tallquist, PhD: "Fibroblast signaling from development to disease"

In her guest talk, "Fibroblast signaling from development to disease", Professor Tallquist will talk about her current research:

In the area of cancer research, much emphasis has been placed on the reduction or elimination of the tumor cell, but as survival rates improve for a variety of cancers we are learning that other complications need to be addressed. Our research focuses on the cardiac fibroblast. We have two lines of research related to the cardiac fibroblast and cancer. First, we have identified that mutations in Nf1, which can lead to neurofibromatosis also cause susceptibility to cardiac fibrosis. Second, several cancer therapies such as doxirubicin have a detrimental side effect of causing fibrosis. We believe our studies on the activation of the fibroblast could lead to further understanding on the long term survival of cancer patients.

Cardiac fibrosis emerges as the default repair response to acute or chronic injury such as myocardial infarction, hypertrophy, chemotherapy, or inflammation. The process entails excessive deposition of scar tissue produced by locally recruited and activated fibroblasts. Fibrosis impairs cardiac compliance and alters cardiac function. Despite its clinical and pathophysiological significance, no interventions currently exist to directly treat or reverse cardiac fibrosis. Our long-term goal is to identify and understand signaling pathways that control the behavior of fibroblasts under pathological and non-pathological conditions.

Source: http://www.uhcancercenter.org/about-us/2-directory/355-michelle-d-tallquist-phd

Everybody who is interested is very welcome to join our seminar series.

The seminars are taking place every second Tuesday from 18:00 - 19:00.