Shreyas Rao
University of Alabama, AL·Biomedical Engineering
Most breast cancer deaths happen after the cancer spreads to other organs. When it reaches the brain, it is especially hard to treat, often because the tumor becomes resistant to drugs.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Engineering
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
brain metastatic breast cancer
brain metastasis
drug resistance
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2029
What they work on
- Engineer a 3D model of brain metastatic breast cancer by growing tumor cells, human microglia and macrophages as spheroids in a hyaluronic acid hydrogel, at clinically relevant cell ratios.
- Validate the engineered immune environment by measuring BMBC niche markers at the RNA (transcriptional) and protein (translational) levels.
- Determine how microglia and macrophages, alone or together, and their polarization state, meaning pro- versus anti-inflammatory mode, change breast cancer cell behavior in the model.
- Test whether immune-cell-rich engineered tumor environments make BMBC cells resistant to therapy, and whether targeting the innate immune niche reverses that resistance.
More about the research
Brain tumors grow alongside resident immune cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM), the web of molecules that surrounds and supports cells. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a main part of the brain's ECM. The immune cells near these tumors are mostly microglia, the brain's own immune cells, and macrophages, which come from blood cells called monocytes. How these immune cells affect treatment response in brain metastatic breast cancer (BMBC) is not known.
Why it matters
Patients with breast cancer that has spread to the brain have poor outlooks, often because treatment stops working. A realistic lab model of their tumor and immune environment could reveal how immune cells drive drug resistance. It may also help test new strategies that target those immune cells. The same platform could support studies of neurological disorders shaped by immune cells.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Shilpa Sant
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Biomedical Engineering
Test whether malignant calcium phosphate (hydroxyapatite) microcalcifications promote breast tumor growth and bone-like traits through Na-Pi transporter signaling, using engineered ECM-mimic hydrogels carrying defined mineral types.
Srinivas Malladi
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine how TEAD, a gene-switching transcription factor, drives AXL expression and brain metastasis in dormant, therapy-resistant HER2-positive breast cancer cells, using the lab's brain metastasis models.
John Clegg
University of Oklahoma, OK·Biomedical Engineering
Test whether activating circulating monocytes and neutrophils, using macrophage-targeted nanogels carrying interferon gamma or interleukin 10, drives their infiltration into the brain in healthy mice and in mouse models of inflammatory disease.
The school
University of Alabama: 22 labs on PI Pages, $221M a year on research, 235 research doctorates a year.
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