Summer Research Opportunity Program in Pathology (SROPP) - Edward Ning

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), where deregulated immune response promotes exacerbated inflammation and formation of ulcers in the inner lining of the large intestine (Ungaro et al., 2017). IBD is also one of the high-risk factors for the development of colorectal cancer (CRC) (Stidhaw et al., 2018). Robust neutrophil infiltration is an important feature of both UC and CRC and in both cases, disease severity is clinically corelated with elevated neutrophil numbers in the tissue. Pathological neutrophil activity in tissue includes release of damaging proteases, generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and causation of DNA damage, all of which can exacerbate inflammation, increase mutagenesis rate and promote cancerous tissue transformation. In the Sumagin lab, using preclinical mouse model of CRC, we observed persistent tissue neutrophil accumulation throughout all stages of inflammation and ulcers to CRC progression. As such, one of the goals in the Sumagin lab is continuing investigating specific mechanisms by which neutrophils promote tumorigenesis.