Expression of the tumor suppressor protein adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) is lost in up to 70% of women with breast cancer.  Research in the laboratory of Harper Cancer Research Institute member Jenifer Prosperi has shown that breast cancer cells with decreased APC are also resistant to doxorubicin (Adriamycin), a common chemotherapeutic used to treat women with breast cancer. To better understand the relationship between APC loss and molecular pathways underlying doxorubicin resistance, Prosperi was recently awarded a 4-year $792,000 Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society, entitled “APC regulation of doxorubicin resistance in breast cancer”.  Through this award, Prosperi aims to use donated human breast tumors to investigate the correlation between APC status and therapy response.  Using novel in vitro and in vivo models developed in her laboratory, Prosperi’s research will also identify how APC-null breast cancers regulate various DNA repair pathways to impact therapeutic response and will enable the discovery of novel targeted therapies to overcome doxorubicin resistance.  Jenifer Prosperi is Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Indiana University School of Medicine South Bend and of Biology at University of Notre Dame.