Hi everyone! My name is Gavin, and my research this summer involves the characterization of a new oncogenic event in thyroid cancer. Our lab recently performed genetic profiling of over 900 thyroid tumors, where we were looking for driver mutations that are known to occur in thyroid cancer. We found that the majority of the tumors tested positive for known driver events, but about 5% tested negative, which meant the mutation underlying these tumors’ unregulated growth was unknown. In order to uncover these tumors’ driver mutations, we performed RNA-Seq analyses, which revealed 11 cases of fusion involving the thyroglobulin gene. Thyroglobulin (TG) is a protein specific to the thyroid, and it has never been implicated in cancer driver events. The aim of my project is to confirm that TG-fusions are indeed real events in thyroid cancer (because RNA-Seq is not quite enough proof), and then to determine if fusion with TG is a novel mechanism of oncogene activation. This research is important because TG-fusion-driven thyroid cancers are recurrent, meaning there have already been multiple individuals (we’ve found 11 so far) who have TG-fusion tumors. There is no reason to think that more people won’t fall victim to this variant of thyroid cancer, so an investigation into this gene fusion should help save lives in the future.

My research mentor on this project is Dr. Alyaksandr Nikitski of UPMC’s Department of Pathology. He and I have been working on this project for over a year now, and we’ve uncovered some interesting characteristics of TG-fusions in that time. For example, most of our fusions are pairings of TG with receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK), which are signaling proteins often dysregulated in cancer. We’ve determined through studies of our surrogate cancer models that TG-RTK fusion proteins are chronically active in the cell, as they do not require the binding of hormones/growth factors/etc. to perform their signaling functions. This behavior of TG-RTKs differs from that of normal, unmutated RTKs.

In a few years, I hope to enroll in an MD/PhD program where I will continue to build toward a career in the field of neuroendocrinology. The Brackenridge Fellowship will help me pursue this goal by facilitating my development as a scientific researcher and by serving as a stepping stone to other research-oriented scholarships like the Goldwater, Amgen, and Fulbright awards.

I’m a biology major with minors in chemistry, neuroscience, and bioengineering. Something unique about me, I used to run a chess club at a rock climbing gym. It got canceled though, since (shockingly) it was not at all profitable for the gym 🙂