Materials and Methods: Basic Science to Breast Oncology Workshop
Tuesday, December 5 • 2:05 p.m. – 3:05 p.m. • Stars at Night Ballroom 3-4

Presentation: Modelling the effects of cell-cell interactions in the tumor microenvironment from single cell variability

Ashley M. Laughney, PhD
Weill Cornell Medicine,
New York, New York

What is your presentation about?
I will present a new computational approach called ContactTracing, that predicts the effect of cellular interactions with the tumor microenvironment (TME) based on intrinsic single cell variability. We use this to understand how chromosomal instability shapes the TME to promote immune suppression and metastasis.

What makes this topic important in 2023?
Tumor cells do not exist in isolation. Through inter-cellular communication they can subvert their microenvironment to promote disease progression. Here, we present a first-in-kind method that predicts how a cell-to-cell interaction shapes responses in the tumor microenvironment.

How did you get involved in this particular area of breast cancer research, care, or advocacy?
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is one of the most lethal forms of breast cancer and exhibits high levels of chromosomal instability. We wanted to understand how this ongoing cellular process promotes immune suppression in this difficult to treat cancer.