Dr. Brady's research looks at copper and how it interacts with and impacts important cellular processes and pathways.
Donita Brady, Ph.D.
Presidential Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology (University of Pennsylvania)
February 7, 2017
Dr. Brady received her B.S. from Radford University and her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from UNC Chapel Hill. Before joining the faculty of Penn in July 2015, she did postdoctoral work at Duke University, where she began working on the question of copper and cancer.
Dr. Brady’s work focuses on the MAPK pathway — a series of proteins that act as a sort of relay system, transmitting a message from the outside of the cell into the nucleus (where the DNA is). The MAPK pathway recognizes signals from outside the cell (e.g. growth factors) and gets a message to the nucleus that it should replicate the DNA and divide. Unsurprisingly, 85% of cancers involve a mutation (genetic change) in the MAPK pathway that leaves it permanently turned on.
Cells are surrounded by a membrane that most things can’t get through. Embedded in the membrane are receptors, which are kind of like antenna, sitting with one part on the inside of the cell and another part facing out. When the signal arrives, it attaches to the outer part of the receptor, causing the inner part to change shape. Once it changes shape, the inner part of the receptor can turn on a protein called RAS, which goes and turns on a protein called RAF, which turns on a protein called MEK, which turns on a protein called MAPK, which turns on proteins that talk to the nucleus directly:
Signal —> receptor —> RAS on —> RAF on —> MEK on —> MAPK on —> —> cell divides
Dr. Brady’s work is still in its early stages but it has promising implications for potential new cancer drugs. She has shown that copper attaches directly to MEK and that it helps MEK in two ways:
- Copper helps MEK interact with MAPK better, which would increase the amount of MAPK that is turned on.
- Copper helps get MEK to the right spot, either for it to be found by RAF or to find MAPK.
Since copper seems to be needed for the MAPK pathway to work, and the MAPK pathway is overly active in the vast majority of cancers, something that could bind to copper and keep it away from MEK has the potential to be a widely useful new cancer drug.