Daniel Alan Nelson, Ph.D.

CBES Area of Interest:

When breast cancers metastasize to other organs, treatment becomes more aggressive and the prognosis less hopeful. Defining the factors that contribute to metastatic disease is therefore an important goal. Research in our laboratory has utilized a mouse model of breast cancer to demonstrate that a common viral infection greatly increases metastatic disease. The experimental murine virus that exacerbates breast cancer metastasis is similar to the common human virus, Epstein Barr virus, which causes mononucleosis in some young adults. Epstein-Barr virus has been suggested as a factor in breast cancer disease however, such an association has been difficult to prove using human patients. The advantage of the animal model of metastatic breast cancer is that we can clearly demonstrate the ability of the virus to exacerbate the disease. We have demonstrated that the Epstein-Barr-like virus does not directly cause breast cancer in animals, but greatly increases metastases to other organs once the animals has the disease. This demonstration will allow us to begin to understand how such a common viral infection might actually cause dissemination of breast cancers throughout the body. Hopefully, when we more fully understand the mechanisms mediating virus-exacerbated metastatic breast cancers, new therapies might present themselves for limiting such an aggressive disease.

CBES Area of Expertise:

Biochemistry, Cell biology, Proteins