Our postdoctoral associate, Dr. Silvia Daniele Rodrigues, presented her work during a meeting of the New York Prostate Club on June 5, 2024. In her talk, titled "Disrupting ELOVL5 Function Impairs Prostate Cancer Progression in c-Myc-driven Mouse Models", Dr. Rodrigues discussed about her crucial work to understand the interplay between lipogenesis, lipid elongation and prostate cancer progression. To this end, Dr. Rodrigues generated genetically engineered mouse models (GEMM) with deletion of ELOVL5, an enzyme involved in the elongation of very long chain fatty acids, in combination with the overexpression of c-Myc, an oncogene known to affect lipid metabolism in cancer cells.
The preliminary data shown by Dr. Rodrigues demonstrated a detrimental effect of blocking ELOVL5 on prostate cancer cells, suggesting that lipid elongation via ELOVL5 may be a potential therapeutic target for prostate cancer.
