Getting a gRiPP on early BRCA1-mutant breast cancer detection and intervention
Description: Breast cancer, a leading cause of female mortality, affects 570,000 European women annually. Despite improved survival rates through screening, early detection often fails in BRCA1-mutated women, leading to poor outcomes. Currently, the only preventive option for these women is preemptive double mastectomy, which severely impacts their lives. Predicting cancer development remains challenging, necessitating urgent development of early intervention strategies. Recent research associates breast cancer progression with microbiome shifts, favoring cancer-promoting bacteria (e.g. Fusobacterium nucleatum) over beneficial strains like Lactococcus lactis. This opens opportunities for microbiota-based interventions using commensal bacteria for local, in vivo detection and drug delivery. However, current strains are not suited for early breast cancer detection and intervention. To address this, I propose to engineer L. lactis, a beneficial, stable and genetically tractable member of the healthy breast microbiome, as a biosensor for cancer detection and as a platform for producing therapeutic peptide natural products. To achieve this, I will use a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing microbial genetic engineering, droplet-based microfluidics and advanced in vivo mouse and organoid imaging experiments. My expertise at the interface between technology and microbiology positions me ideally to pioneer this innovative synthetic biology approach to get a gRiPP on breast cancer development.
Funder: Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Funding type: fellowship
Funder scheme: FWO senior postdoctoral fellowship
Start date: 2024-11-01
End date: 2027-10-31
Investigators: Hans Gerstmans, Levina Scheele
Institution: KULeuven
Funded outputs count: 2
Funder award ID: 12A4N25N
OpenAlex ID: G7165698273