Fueled by a $10,000 Creative Collisions Pilot Grant from the University of Colorado Cancer Center’s Tumor Host Interactions Program (THI) and the mentorship of two cancer center investigators, Migachelle Romano is starting her cancer research career with a bang.
Romano is a trainee in the CU Cancer Center’s ASCENT program, a two-year mentoring and research training experience for post-baccalaureate students who want to apply to an PhD or MD-PhD program and commit to a cancer research career. Her THI-funded research project, “Investigating how Obesity-Driven Inflammation Promotes Pancreatic Cancer Progression,” is co-led by CU Cancer Center member Carlo Marchetti, PhD, assistant professor of medical oncology in the CU Anschutz School of Medicine, and Curtis Henry, PhD, deputy associate director in the cancer center’s Office of Faculty and Staff Relations.
“Migachelle is a good researcher — passionate and very motivated,” Marchetti says. “She started the program with not much experience, and in these two years, she has learned a lot, not just from a technical point of view, but also thinking scientifically. She has a bright career ahead of her.”
Already a researcher in Marchetti’s lab studying how inflammation regulates progression and metastasis in pancreatic cancer, Romano became involved with the THI-funded research after presenting at the group’s research symposium. It was there she connected with Henry, who conducts research on the role of obesity in driving cancer progression.
“Obesity is well known as a factor in many chronic cancers that leads to the progression of the tumor,” Romano says. “We started collaborating to study how it affects pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. What we saw is that when we cultured pancreatic cancer cells with adipocyte-conditioned media, or media from fat cells, the cancer cells proliferated more, and their viability was better. We realized that the adipocytes are secreting something that is helping the tumor to grow.”
Romano continues to research the interaction, investigating how the adipocytes help the pancreatic cancer cells grow and whether targeting specific proteins on the cancer cells can inhibit the process.
“Obesity is a recognized risk factor for pancreatic cancer, and obesity-related inflammation is a problem in pancreatic cancer,” Marchetti says. “Our preliminary data showed that when we grow pancreatic cancer cells in a media that is enriched with factors that are released by adipose tissue, the cancer cells create more tumor-permissive environment. Migachelle is performing more experiments to find out why this happens.”
For Romano, who received the THI grant just a few months into her tenure in the ASCENT program, the funding was a sign that she was on the right track.
“I was still getting my footing and becoming independent in the lab, but once I got the grant, I remember thinking it was my time,” she says. “It was like, ‘OK, now you actually have funding. It's getting real. Let's put in double the effort.’”
Originally from Haiti, Romano came to the U.S. at 18 and was diagnosed with a brain tumor soon after her arrival.
"Staying here for treatment was my catalyst for pursuing medicine," she says. "I promised myself that if I ever had the chance to walk out of the hospital tumor-free, I would pursue medicine so I could stand on the other side of the hospital bed and help others find hope and healing like I did."
Romano came to the CU Cancer Center after graduating from the University of Delaware with a bachelor’s degree in biology. Looking to improve her research skills, she began working in Marchetti’s lab before joining the ASCENT program.
“I knew that I wanted to do a dual-degree program, but because I started in research a bit late — in my junior year of undergrad — I wanted to have more experience in research,” says Romano, who will soon begin applying to MD-PhD programs at CU and elsewhere. “It's now been a year and a half, and it’s exciting to see my progress — the way I'm understanding, the way I can come up with my own hypothesis. It's exciting. I'm definitely ready for my program next year.”