Thu Truong, PhD

Late recurrence of metastatic disease stemming from acquired therapy resistance remains a significant health burden for women with ER+ breast cancer. Contributing factors include breast cancer stem cells (CSCs) which are poorly proliferative and frequently exist as a minority population in recurrent therapy resistant tumors.

Our current objectives are centered on defining how nuclear receptors (e.g., estrogen receptor [ER], progesterone receptor [PR]) and their associated co-activators mediate the survival and expansion of therapy resistant breast CSCs with emphasis on oncogenic signaling pathways and metabolic reprogramming. Identifying and targeting reversible events that drive metastatic ER+ breast tumor cells is an unmet need that has the potential to extend patient lives and improve well-being.

Our laboratory employs a wide variety of techniques to investigate the CSC population at the gene and protein level. We also use a variety of in vitro (breast cancer cell lines), pre-clinical (patient-derived organoids, PDxO), and in vivo (xenograft) models to achieve our research goals. Our research interests broadly include cancer stem cells, signal transduction, gene regulation, cancer metabolism, post-translational modifications, therapy resistance, breast cancer, and cancer biology