Research Interests - Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Kusewitt is a board-certified veterinary pathologist and molecular
biologist. She has a strong background in the development and
characterization of animal models of human disease. Her research has
focused primarily on skin carcinogenesis and other adverse effects of
ultraviolet radiation (UVR), including mutation induction, cell cycle
perturbations, and alterations in gene expression. Currently, she is
examining the role of the Slug and Snail transcription factors in
UVR-induced skin cancer.
These transcriptions play an important role in the epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) that takes place during embryogenesis. EMT-like events (loss of desmosomes, increased cell motility, increased expression of proteases, loss of cytokeratin expression) also take place during progression of UVR-induced skin carcinomas, and Dr.Kusewitt is testing the hypothesis that Slug drives EMT-like events during skin tumor progression.
Dr. Kusewitt's laboratory has shown that acute UVR exposure induces Slug expression in adult epidermis and that UVR activation of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor appears to play a criticalrole in Slug induction. The pathways leading to Slug induction and the effect of enhanced Slug expression on skin carcinogenesis are currently under investigation. Preliminary results suggest that Slug may control cell motility by modulating the expression of contractile elements. These ongoing studies are funded by Dr. Kusewitt's R01 award.
|
