BME7900 Seminar: Maureen Lynch (Colorado)

Description

Dynamic Fluid Flow: A Key Regulator of Breast Cancer-Osteocyte Crosstalk in the Bone Microenvironment

Approximately one in four patients with advanced breast cancer develop incurable skeletal metastasis, which is the leading cause of breast cancer-related deaths among women worldwide. Breast cancer metastasis is overwhelmingly osteolytic, causing increased fragility and fracture. Increased mechanical loading (akin to exercise), in contrast, is a strong anabolic signal in bone, and may be osteoprotective and anti-tumorigenic.

This talk will discuss our approaches for investigating the effects of mechanical loading on breast cancer bone metastasis with a focus on tumor cell interactions with the osteocyte, the primary mechanosensory cell in bone.

Bio:
Maureen Lynch received her B.S. in mechanical engineering from Clemson University in 2005. She received her doctorate in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in 2010 under the supervision of Prof. Marjolein van der Meulen in the field of orthopaedic biomechanics and an was NSF GRFP awardee. She then worked as a Hartwell Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Biomedical Engineering with Prof. Claudia Fischbach in the field of tissue engineering and cancer. She is currently at the University of Colorado in Boulder in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and an NFS CAREER awardee.