Suzana Savkovic, PhD, School of Medicine
The main focus of my lab has been to study the role of the transcription factor FOXO3 in inflammation-mediated tumor growth, with a specific focus on the colonic epithelium and colon cancer. First, we have demonstrated that proinflammatory stimuli, such as bacterial products and cytokines, cause a loss of FOXO3 activity, leading to sustained inflammation in colonic epithelial cells, while deficiency of FOXO3 in mice increases susceptibility to colonic inflammation. Second, growth factors, known to support tumor progression, also cause loss of FOXO3, thus stimulating colonic tumor cell
