Remya Raja, PhD; The Mayo Clinic
Project Title: Proteogenomic Profiling of Antigen Evolution for Early Detection of High Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer
Project Summary
Ovarian cancer is a very serious disease that is often found too late, when it’s harder to treat. To help women survive this cancer, we need better ways to find it early-before it spreads and becomes more dangerous.
Our research is looking at something called cryptic antigens. These are tiny pieces of proteins that come from parts of our DNA that usually don’t make proteins. We found that these cryptic antigens show up in ovarian cancer cells, but not in normal cells.
We want to find out if these cryptic antigens show up in the very first stages of cancer, even before a tumor forms. We will look closely at early changes in the fallopian tubes, called STICs, which scientists believe may be where this type of cancer begins. Using powerful tools that help us see which proteins and genes are active, we will try to figure out when and where these antigens appear, and what the immune system is doing at the same time. By carefully mapping these cryptic antigens, we hope to find a pattern or “signature” that signals the presence of early cancer. We will focus on the RNA that tells the cells to make these cryptic antigens to create a biomarker panel and test whether they can tell the difference between healthy people and those who already have cancer. Our work will lay the foundation for the development of new, less invasive ways to detect ovarian cancer early.
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