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Professor wins nIh grant for cancer research

By MAGGIE KLAERS

news Writer

The national health Institute (nIh) announced in october plans to give out nearly $251 million in grants over five years to 85 different scientists in their highrisk, high reward research Program. notre dame’s Katharine White was on the list.

White is an assistant professor of chemistry and biology at the University of notre dame, as well as a 2007 graduate from saint mary’s, whose innovative research caught the attention of the nIh. she was awarded the director’s new Innovators Award, a prestigious grant with a particular emphasis on supporting young researchers with big ideas.

“The award funds exceptionally creative, early career-investigators, so that’s people that propose innovative risk but also high reward research,” White said. “It’s research that’s innovative, and risky, but has a huge potential impact in human health and improving human health. broadly, and in this case, improving the treatment of cancer.”

White’s research focuses on comparing the relationship of the ph levels within cancer cells to normal cells.

“our research platform in general is at the interface of chemistry and cell biology. We design new chemical tools to manipulate cell biology,” White said. “our focus is on understanding how intracellular ph dynamics [regulate] normal cell biology as well as how dysregulated ph dynamics drive diseases like cancer.”

Junior michael siroky, who has been working in White’s lab since June 2019, said this research has the potential to find new ways to reverse the effects of cancer growth.

“We’re very interested in how the dysregulation of ph in cancer cells affects a lot of the hallmarks of cancer, like growth and metastasis and different metabolic adaptations,” siroky said. “We’re primarily focused on how those changes come about and to some extent like how to reverse them.”

There are many smaller projects under the umbrella of White’s area of research. Junior Jessamine Kuehn has been a member of White’s lab since spring 2019 and has been working on one of the sub-projects.

“my project was working with a particular mutation that’s found in 70% of gliomas,” Kuehn said. “It was a point mutation that changed an arginine, a really basic amino acid, to a histidine, ph near-neutral amino acid, that could actually function as a molecular switch to change, with small changes in the intracellular ph of the cell, the function of the mutated protein.”

With the influx of resources the grant will give her lab, White said she will be abled to dive into new avenues and sub-topics of her research. In particular, White said she would be looking into how heterogeneity drives singlecell migration and metastasis events or how the diversity of shape and function of cancer cells impacts their ability to spread in the body.

Furthermore, siroky said this grant will give the lab the power to increase the specificity of their results and generate new opportunities to share their findings. receiving the nIh grant has been an aim for White since its inception. she said she believes her research is unique from other cancer research because it is the intersection between two areas of study — applying the usage of chemical tools to gain a better understanding of cellular behavior.

“I think one of the key reasons my work is potentially highly innovative [is] because it exists at this interface between chemistry and cell biology,” White said.

Kuehn works closely with White as she learns new skills for the projects she takes on in the lab.

“I have a lot of one on one [time], like learning procedures with [White]. It’s really nice that she’s available for that kind of guidance. I really appreciated that,” Kuehn said. siroky said he is glad to see White’s hard work pay off.

“It’s pretty gratifying, especially knowing how hard [White] works inside and outside the lab,” siroky said. “she’s always fighting for all of these opportunities; it’s really good to see one of them that’s this important pay off because she definitely deserves it to the fullest extent.”

Contact Maggie Klaers at mklaers@nd.edu

Inequality

conTInUed From PAGe 1

movements such as the ones for racial justice and gender equality are fundamentally intertwined, and must be recognized by all activists as intersectional.

“Gender is race and race is gender,” davis said. davis further emphasized the importance of intersectionality in environmental justice, saying that fighting climate change is the foundation for addressing other social issues.

“environmental justice is the ground zero of all social movements,” davis said.

Parks-King said davis’ words are especially important during a year that the United states has been reckoning with racial injustice and systemic racism, in addition to a global pandemic that has disproportionally affected black Americans.

“There has been so many unprecedented and precedented things that have been exacerbated by covId and by antiblackness and racial injustice that this is a critical moment to engage with Angela davis,” Parks-King said. “I hope that people are able to hear what she has to say … especially right now.”

The lecture also entertained some audience questions, such as the value in the educational system and the carceral state in Palestine. Johnson said the heightened social consciousness to issues such as these is crucial in moving forward to fight racial inequality.

“People are starting to engage more with world events and recognizing the interconnectedness of movements and struggles for freedom and recognizing how there is a shared colonial legacy along a lot of countries,” Johnson said. “In order to combat that, working together in these social movements and recognizing those similarities [becomes] essential.”

Toward the end of the lecture, davis brought up capitalism and its contributions in cementing systemic racism in the United states and around the world.

In order to talk about how capitalism has affected disenfranchised communities, davis said that we, as a society, need to learn how to talk about slavery.

“colonialism and slavery were the foundations of

MIA MORAN | The Observer

Author Angela Davis spoke to panelists from the University and answered audience questions on racial, gender and economic struggles at the 27th Annual Hesburgh Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy Tuesday.

capitalism,” davis said. davis said abolition is important because simply placing diversity programs within firms is only an “invitation for minorities to participate in oppressive institutions,” rather than a solution to the structural oppression capitalism inherently presents.

The lecture ended with hooker recognizing that we all subconsciously or consciously understand that the “carceral system is obsolete,” or the system of prisons that is part of the perpetuation of systemic racism and oppression in the United states. Americans, he said, need to proceed to “disentangle our minds and hearts from [that] system.” donahue said he hopes the lecture “help[s] bring more of these conversations that Angela davis has been propagating her entire life to the campus community.”

Contact Mia Moran at mmoran23@nd.edu

Jenkins

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browne said Jenkins learned earlier that week a colleague who he regularly associates with tested positive for the virus. Jenkins was then tested and received a positive result. As a result, he entered an extended period of isolation.

“since testing positive for covId-19, Fr. Jenkins has experienced moderate symptoms that have lessened over time,” browne said in a statement to The observer on Thursday. “he has worked remotely throughout. Fr. Jenkins is grateful for the expressions of concern and good wishes of many.”

According to monday’s press release, Jenkins currently does not have any symptoms of covId-19 and “looks forward to resuming his normal activities.”

“Father Jenkins again thanked the many people who offered prayers and well wishes for him over the last two weeks,” browne said.