Engineering translational and physiologically relevant preclinical cancer models to advance women’s health research
The de la Puente Lab develops translational and physiologically relevant preclinical cancer models as tools to recapitulate tumor behavior ex vivo (“out of the living”) with an emphasis in cellular crosstalk, extracellular matrix remodeling, and spatial gradients. We focus on elucidating mechanisms driving chemoresistance and immune evasion in women’s cancer and further developing novel treatment strategies to mitigate their occurrence. Our long-term goal is to accelerate and directly translate our significant insights to aid women suffering from cancer.
Lab News
Amrita Bhagia, MDPhD student, was awarded an Independent Research Award for her work on microfluidics from University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine
Dr. Pilar de la Puente has received an R37 MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health—an honor only given to researchers whose grant proposals are considered outstanding by NIH reviewers.
She was awarded $2.75 million for her project, “Elucidating spatiotemporal dynamics of nascent extracellular matrix in response to platinum treatment in ovarian cancer,” which will explore how the tumor environment changes during treatment using tissue engineering and metabolic labeling approaches.
Publication in BBA Molecular Cell Research: Reprogramming of normal fibroblasts into ovarian cancer-associated fibroblasts via non-vesicular paracrine signaling induces an activated fibroblast phenotype
Dr. de la Puente is featured in the Comic Book Cancer Wars to bring contemporary role models for Hispanic women.
