About Our Lab
Breast cancer is one type of solid tumor for which the extracellular matrix plays an integral role in disease progression. Increased deposition and remodeling of the extracellular matrix in the tumor microenvironment provides both biochemical and biophysical cues for cancer cells. The Ponik lab is interested in better understanding the specific signaling pathways that are regulated by cell interactions with the extracellular matrix, and how these pathways are involved in the progression of breast cancer.
Ponik Lab News
Congratulations to Metti Gari!
August 2022 – Ponik lab graduate student, Metti Gari, successfully completed her preliminary exam, “PEG-FUD as an anti-cancer therapy for breast cancer”. She is now a dissertation in the Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology Program at …
The Ponik and Kwon labs collaborate to improve the tumor targeting potential of an anti-fibrotic inhibitor of fibronectin assembly.
August 2022. In this study we demonstrated improved tumor targeting and biodistribution of 20-kDa PEG conjugated FUD peptide (PEG-FUD) in the 4T1 murine breast cancer model using multimodal imaging techniques. We demonstrate that PEGylation improves …
Ponik Lab publishes new methods protocol to use endogenous fluorescence to segment intravital images.
May 2022. This novel method demonstrates an intravital imaging workflow pairing collagen second harmonic generation imaging, endogenous fluorescence from the metabolic co-factor NAD(P)H, and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) as a means to non-invasively compartmentalize the …
Congrats to Metti Gari! Winner of the 2022 ASMB image contest
“Every Rose has a Fiber” The extracellular matrix in a mouse model of triple negative breast cancer. (Tenascin-C = red, Fibronectin = green, DAPI = blue)
Congratulations to Shelby Fertal on the publication of her review article on the stromal impacts on new therapies for TNBC patients!
In this collaborative review with Drs. Kari Wisinski and Johanna Poterala, we summarize the recent outcomes from clinical trials with new agents for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, specifically focusing on immunotherapies targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway …
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