WHAT: University of Nebraska at Kearney Science Café
HOSTED BY: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society
TITLE: “Good or Bad Neighbors? How Do Chemokines From Bone Cells Impact Bone-Metastatic Prostate Cancer?”
TOPIC: Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in American men. The majority of these deaths are due to bone-metastatic prostate cancer, which is currently incurable. This research seeks to understand how interactions with bone cells help prostate tumor cells grow in bones. Specifically, the research focuses on small pro-inflammatory signaling proteins produced by bone cells and their impact on the growth of bone-metastatic prostate cancer.
PRESENTER: Born in the U.S. and raised in China, Catherine Johnson attributes her interest in biomedical science to a childhood of witnessing her parents provide care to orphans with disabilities through the nonprofit they founded: China Little Flower. Johnson returned to the U.S. in 2015 to begin undergraduate studies at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. After transferring to Ave Maria University, she graduated in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. That same year, she was accepted into the cancer research graduate program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where she studied the role of bone cells in bone-metastatic prostate cancer. She is currently completing her doctorate in biomedical science and expects to graduate in spring 2025.
Johnson joined the UNK Department of Biology as an assistant professor in August. She intends to lead undergraduate students in research to continue investigating the role of bone cells in different types of bone and bone-metastatic cancers.
TIME: 5:30 p.m.
DATE: Monday, Oct. 7
PLACE: Cunningham’s on the Lake, 610 Talmadge St.
CONTACT: Katherine Moen, UNK associate psychology professor, 308.865.8236, moenk@unk.edu
