Increasing pediatric tumor sensitivity to proton radiation therapy

Increasing pediatric tumor sensitivity to proton radiation therapy Taylor Kupneski Susanne Wells Lab Mentor : Mathieu Sertorio

So What? Understanding the differences of responses to different types of radiation to design new combinatory sensitizing approaches • Searching for ways to make the tumor cells more sensitive by combining chemical inhibitors and proton radiation • Increased sensitivity allows less radiation to be used to kill the tumor • Less radiation will cause less damage to the tissue surrounding the tumor especially with proton radiation Better long term outcomes

Making tumor cells more sensitive to proton radiation Learning to measure cell death Lymphoma : BL 41 cell line Measure by flow cytometry Squamous cell carcinoma Measure by Colony unit forming assay VU 1131 Loading ctrl FANCCMut FANCCComp Ctrl Annexin. V positive cells = Dead cells 2 Gy 5 Gy Hands on : Cell culture, PCR, Western blot, flow cytometry and mouse handling

Now What? Continue the research! • Testing different inhibitors for identified targets in combination with proton radiation • Sensitization in-vitro and in-vivo? • Will continue testing the difference between photon and proton radiation • Identification of more potential targets • RNAseq /Single cell sequencing • Metabolomics • Kinomics