URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Fall_2019_Melissa-McCarthy

The People come in contact with potential sources of cancer every day, whether they’re a 911 first responder exposed to harmful chemicals or someone at the beach, soaking up the sun’s ultraviolet rays. But how can you know for sure if you’re at risk for developing cancer later in life? Deyu Li

Assistant Professor & Paramaz Avedisian Endowed Chair in Medicinal Organic Chemistry

Therefore, Li is working on an alternate method that involves chemistry. Chemicals that cause cancer react with DNA and form DNA adducts. By intentionally inserting these adducts directly into a cell through using a vector, and then allowing these adducts to replicate, it may be possible to search the resulting mutations for a specific pattern for cancer caused by the chemical. And, the use of a vector eliminates responses from other factors like metabolisms and abnormal cellular responses, giving a clean mutational signature. Li’s work has another benefit. The information gained from DNA sequencing can also be used to predict a person’s resistance to a drug, which is essential to know in tailoring chemotherapy treatments for individual patients. Patients may have an unknown resistance to a certain drug used to treat cancer, but by sequencing a person’s genome to identify a resistance pattern to the drug, the best potential drug intervention could be selected.

According to Deyu Li, the answer to connecting the timeline between carcinogen exposure and cancer lies in each individual’s genome.

Fall | 2018 Page 43