Acs Research - Theorylab

Cancer cells, explains Dorothy Sipkins, MD, PhD, “have this tendency to steal from or copy the way that normal cells respond to their microenvironment.” In this conversation Dr. Sipkins explains how cancer cells profit from the tissue microenvironment. She also describes an important discovery made by her lab, showing how acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells get around the blood-brain barrier to find the microenvironment in the central nervous system where they flourish. Dorothy Sipkins, MD, PhD, is an associate professor at the Duke University Medical Center in the Division of Hematological Malignancies and Cellular Therapy. Dr. Sipkins runs a lab that’s focused on tissue microenvironments, or “niches, that regulate the migration, survival and regeneration of cancerous cells.” 3:42 – Why the tissue microenvironment is so important… 8:02 – …and how different microenvironments are crucial for cancer cells 11:55 –The treatment challenges resulting from the movement of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (A