Blake Sells
Program: Cancer Biology
Current advisor: David G. DeNardo, PhD
Undergraduate university: Duke University
Research summary
Over the past summer, I worked in the lab of Dr. Julie Schwarz in the department of radiation oncology. The Schwarz lab studies molecular pathways that underly cervical cancer treatment resistance. Currently, approximately 34% of women will not survive longer than five years after diagnosis of cervical cancer. Previous studies in the lab have shown that aberrant glucose and glutamine metabolism impacts radiotherapy resistance in vitro and may be partially responsible for treatment resistance. In the lab, I utilized colony formation assays, immunofluorescence, and flow cytometry to better understand how cervical cancer cell lines respond to inhibited glutamine metabolism in the presence of radiation and cisplatin, the current standards of care for cervical cancer.
Graduate publications