Research Interests: Cancer Drugs/Apoptosis
I have had an interest in cancer research since summer 2002 when I performed an internship in a lab that studied Bcl-2 family member proteins and their role in apoptosis. My interest continued as I started the IGBPS in fall of 2005, and I found another apoptosis lab to work in. I joined Dr. John Robertson’s lab in May 2006.
Cancer is a very prevalent chronic disease that affects many Americans. According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 1,444,920 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the year 2007, and over 12,000 will be diagnosed in Kansas alone. An estimated 559,650 people will die of cancer this year in the US and over 5,000 will come from state of Kansas.
Cancer arises from too much cellular proliferation and/or too little cell death. One mechanism by which the body can evade cancer is for the immune system to recognize an aberrant or precancerous cell and trigger it to undergo apoptosis (cell suicide). Also, many clinically important cancer drugs cause irreversible damage to a cell’s DNA that initiates the apoptotic process. Currently, I am working to better understand the molecular signaling pathways responsible for receptor-mediated apoptotic cell death in a well characterized cell culture model.
Mary Shawgo
Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutics
The University of Kansas Medical Center
MS1018
3901 Rainbow Boulevard
Kansas City, KS 66160
Phone: (913) 588-7140
Fax: (913)588-7501
E-Mail: mshawgo@kumc.edu
Updated 02/06/07
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The University of Kansas Medical Center