Cydney Dennis

Molecular Biology

· Led 4 research projects with a dynamic scientific team, resulting in 2 manuscripts, 3 pending publications, 4 animal model establishments, and 6 awarded grants.

● Interpreted extensive data, identified new research gaps, and designed research plans in laryngeal cancer treatments and prognosis, leading to the orchestration of 4 novel research topics.

● Surveyed diverse databases and investigated the potential of hormone receptor as a novel therapeutic and prognostic biomarker in laryngeal cancer, leading to potential early stage diagnoses in clinical settings, resulting in an invitation to present a lecture at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2024 annual meeting.

● Evaluated the effect of steroid hormone therapy on tumorigenesis in vitro through a wide array of live/dead assays, ELISA, qPCR, and scratch wound assays, demonstrating a reduction in tumorigenesis in vitro.

● Investigated the signal transduction pathways involved in the regulation of vitamin D in cancer through antibody-based inhibitors, shRNA, and RNAseq analysis. Successfully designed and transfected a hormone receptor targeted shRNA in a laryngeal cancer cell line leading to a 71% reduction in protein levels measured by western blot.

● Developed orthotopic mouse model of laryngeal cancer using tumor cell implantation into the buccal mucosa, resulting in 100% tumor inoculation in 58 immunocompromised mice confirmed through in Vivo Imaging.

● Investigated the therapeutic potential of vitamin D metabolites in an orthotopic laryngeal cancer mouse model, resulting in a 51% reduction in tumor volume and 30% increase in survival of mice bearing laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas compared to control.

● Developed new protocol for sub-culturing patient derived 2-D tissue cultures by reducing the concentration of trypsin; leading to improved cell viability.

● Established bone-cancer interface mouse model using triple negative breast cancer cells, demonstrating the effect of estrogen and tamoxifen treatment on tumor growth earning an international oral conference presentation and a travel grant.

● Established co-culturing system to investigate the interaction of cancer cells and osteoclasts in an in vitro bone metastasis system, demonstrating the cell-to-cell communications in bone metastasis.

Protein Engineering

· Developed and trained 8 colleagues on a system that utilized LICOR technologies for Western Blotting experiments within the lab leading to improved laboratory workflow and protein analysis output.

· Developed a simplified technique that treat samples in media, increasing western blot sensitivity by 30%.

· Developed a dot-blot protocol resulting in a reduction of total protein loading by 25%.

· Developed HPLC to quantify vitamin D metabolites after treatment, leading to the identification of novel targeted cancer therapy.

• Developed and significantly improved the liquid-liquid extraction protocol for HPLC in a low throughput format improving purification of compounds and increased recovery of samples.

Animal Biology

· Maintain and update animal protocols for new and existing techniques.

· Prepares animals for experimental imaging and therapeutic studies including anesthesia, shave, Nair, injection catheters, physiological monitoring, retro-orbital infusion, intraarterial infusion, intracardiac injection, subcutaneous tumor implantation, intraperitoneal injection, surgical techniques, necropsies, blood and tissue sample collection, and proper disposal of animal carcasses.

· Perform molecular biological experiments, including cell culture, tissue homogenization, protein and RNA extraction techniques, multiplex enzyme-linker immunosorbent assay, Western blotting, RT-PCR, tissue handling and flow cytometry.

· Perform a variety of specialized tissue fixation, embedding, sectioning, staining and immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence techniques and perform analysis of animal tissues; prepare frozen slices and paraffin section, appropriately stained to demonstrate normal and abnormal structures and performs light and confocal microscopy.

· Update and maintain laboratory notebooks and databases; collect, quantitative analysis; data analysis, figure preparation, and image acquisition; maintain complete and detailed records of all experiments and interpret data.

· Maintain spreadsheet of experiment animal records and clinical care/observations.

· Handle, dissect and euthanize animals.

· Handle experimental animals including tail vein injections, administration of anesthesia and monitoring of animal viral signs.

· Perform experiments and maintain primary tissues and cells in culture, utilizing sterile techniques.

Leadership

· Supervised and trained 10 junior colleagues in hands-on experiments, cell culture technology and cellular biology and provided support in troubleshooting, and atypical issue resolutions, resulting in 1 international poster presentation and 7 university-level poster presentations from mentored students.

· Developed and maintain SOPs and quality control standards for product development, manage spending to meet various project needs, establish and maintain safe test lab practices and procedures; resulting in zero safety mishaps.

· Performed laboratory equipment qualification, calibration, preventative maintenance, and coordinated with outside contractor support.

· Led 200 undergraduate students in hands-on biomedical engineering labs and reviewed their work of Applied Physiology.

· Instructed students on Computational and Mathematical Modeling using MATLAB programming.

· Conducted 4 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GFRP) and NIH F31 grant writing seminars with over 30 graduate students in attendance, leading to 1 NSF GRFP awardee, 1 honorable mention, and 2 NIH F30/F31 awardees.