Disputas- Master i molekylær biologi og biokjemi Saikat Das Sajib

Avhandlingen er tilgjengelig her! The doctoral thesis! Prøveforelesningen starter kl. 10.15: How Cancer Cell Plasticity and an Adaptive Tumor Microenvironment Drive Treatment Resistance in Breast Cancer. Prøveforelesningen strømmes her/ The trail lecture will be stremaed here. Disputasen starter 12.15 og kan strømmes her.  The defense will be stremed here. Auditoriet er åpent for publikum, men disputasen vil også bli strømmet. Opptak av disputasen vil være tilgjengelig i et døgn. The auditorium is open to the public.  Recordings of the trial lecture and the defense will be available for 24 hours.

Populærvitenskapelig sammendrag:

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, and its heterogeneity stems from multiple biological process, including epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).
EMT allows cancer cells to become more flexible and spread and induces treatment resistance. In this thesis, we have developed gene-based methods to measure EMT in breast cancer. We found that EMT is not a linear switch between cell types, but a process through multiple intermediate states.
Tumors that showed a loss of epithelial traits were linked to a less active immune environment, suggesting that EMT may help cancer cells evade the immune system. We also studied how EMT affects proteoglycans, important molecules for tissue microenvironment organization. We discovered a link between EMT and the microenvironment consistent across tissues and life stages. Understanding these changes may improve tumor classification and explain why some breast cancers become more aggressive, aiding future diagnostics and treatments.

Hovedveileder
Førsteamanuensis Erik Knutsen, Institutt for medisinsk biologi, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT Norges arktiske universitet. 

Bedømmelseskomité
Professor Diether Lambrechts, VIB KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology, Belgia – 1. opponent.
Professor Siver Andreas Moestue, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), – 2. opponent.
Ph.d. Ilona H. Urbarova, Institutt for samfunnsmedisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT– leder av komité.

Disputasleder: Instituttleder Eva Sjøttem, Institutt for medisinsk biologi, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.