Around 64,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer are diagnosed every year. These cases only make up 3% of all cancer cases, but account for approximately 8% of all cancer related deaths. This type of cancer is particularly deadly since it often goes undiscovered due to a lack of predictive technology, meaning that at the point of diagnosis it has often metastasized to other vital areas of the body, such as the lungs and liver. Specifically, of those diagnosed with the disease, only 12.5% percent survive over a 5-year period and only 3.2% survive when distant metastasis occurs. These rates are particularly further exacerbated in several minority communities, particularly Hispanic and African American, due to lower rates of screenings, lack of follow-up visits, and medical distrust. Overall, due to the overall high lethality associated with migratory pancreatic cancer cells, understanding the mechanism that underlies that migration is critical towards the development of treatment. The type of metastatic mechanism that is particularly relevant to pancreatic cancer is the Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT). While there is a body of biomarkers associated with EMT, the factors that induce this transition are less well studied. This is the field that I plan to work in this summer.

Currently, I've been examining a protein called ZIP11 which the literature suggests that plays a significant role in the regulation of nuclear zinc homeostasis and that this type of homeostasis may play a critical role in gene expression. Currently, my plan this summer is to run a series of experiment to examine if this gene plays a role in the mechanisms that underlie for pancreatic cancer metastasis. With that in mind, I have three major objectives in mind. First, I would like to confirm that zinc increases migration in pancreatic cancer cells. Second, I would like to confirm the importance of ZIP11 in maintaining nuclear zinc homeostasis. Third, if ZIP11 is important for maintaining nuclear zinc homeostasis, I would like to determine if the overexpression of the ZIP11 gene increases the biomarkers of EMT or metastasis in general. As I mentioned previously, the deadliness of pancreatic cancer comes mostly from the fact that by the time it is detected, the cancer has already spread to other regions of the body, making it much harder to treat. That is why understanding the mechanisms of metastasis is crucial to the development of new therapeutics.