Women in Cancer Research Mini Seminar Series: Karin Eisinger

Description

Dr. Karin Eisinger, an assistant professor of Cancer Research at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, will give the final installment in the Women in Cancer Research Mini Seminar Series with "New Approach to Metastasis Using a Novel Zebrafish Xenograft System." The series is hosted by the Physical Sciences-Oncology Center at the Institute for NanoBioTechnology.

Abstract:

About 90% of cancer deaths occur because of metastasis. Moreover, targeted therapies are unavailable to treat or prevent metastatic progression. Therefore, we incorporated a novel in vivo approach in metastatic sarcoma utilizing the fli:GFP zebrafish xenograft system. We microinject fluorescently labeled sarcoma cells into the yolk sac of 2-day-old embryos, which possess GFP+ vasculature. We observed that metastasizing sarcoma cells first form linear clusters, then extravasate and establish micrometastases.

Our work focuses on soft tissue sarcomas, but the zebrafish xenograft tool has a broad basis of utility and may be applicable to many different tumor types. We have found that cell lines derived from human lung, breast, and bone tumors can be evaluated using this system.