Breast cancer

Breast cancer majorly originates in the milk-producing lobules of the mammary breast. These lobules are of epithelial origin, spherical in shape and surrounded by a basement membrane. We ask, How does cancer originate in these lobules? Why does the incidence of breast cancer increase as we age?

To address these questions, we make organoids of breast acini in the lab mimicking aged Vs normal breast tissue. We then sporadically transform healthy tissue cells into oncogenic mutants to study the cellular mechanisms underlying cancer initiation.

Oral Cancer

The most common form of oral cancer, oral squamous cell carcinoma originates in the epithelium of the oral mucosa. This oral epithelium is packed as a stratified layer of epithelial cells over the submucosal layer made largely of collagen, and laminin. A pre-cancer condition called oral submucosal fibrosis greatly modifies this submucosal layer and appears in populations with a habit of chewing betel nuts and tobacco. How does this pre-cancer condition allow cancer cells to grow in the epithelial layer? We make organotypic models of oral mucosa to explore this problem at a cellular level.