Kristin Altwegg, M.S.

Kristin works on developing novel small molecule inhibitors targeting proto-oncogenic PELP1 in both therapy resistant and triple negative breast cancers  Breast cancer (BCa) is the most common malignancy in women, the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths after lung cancer. The majority of BCa (70%) is estrogen receptor positive (ER+). However, most patients develop therapy-resistance (TR-BC), frequently progressing to metastases. In addition to ER+ BCa, approximately 15% of BCa diagnoses are categorized as triple negative BCa (TNBC) because they do not express the canonical molecular drivers: ER, progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2. TNBC is associated with a younger age at diagnosis (<40 years), advanced stage at diagnosis, predominance in African American or Hispanic ethnicity, and a more aggressive clinical course.  Overall, TNBC has a higher propensity to metastasize, worse prognosis, and contributes a disproportional share of the total mortality from BCa. TNBC is nonresponsive to many of the effective drugs targeting ER/PR or HER2.  Her doctoral work is geared toward development of novel effective therapies for women with TR-BC and TNBC with the overarching goal of improving patient survivorship.