Lauren C. Nassour-Caswell's poster won first place in the student category. Photo credit: Mike StrawnLauren C. Nassour-Caswell won first place for her poster in the student category at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center Research Retreat on Oct. 13 at Regions Field.

Nassour-Caswell is currently a biochemistry and structural biology theme Ph.D. candidate in the UAB Graduate Biomedical Sciences program and is sponsored by UAB Department of Radiation Oncology Associate Vice Chair of Translational Research and Hale-Stephens ROAR Endowed Professor Christopher Willey, M.D., Ph.D.

The retreat’s poster sessions included more than 165 research posters in a student category and non-student category.

Nassour-Caswell’s winning poster is titled, “Myristoylated Alanine-Rich C-Kinase Substrate (MARCKS) as a target for pathological tunneling nanotubes in Glioblastoma.”

“My work investigates the role of MARCKS in the generation and stability of tunneling nanotubes in GBM (glioblastoma) and how these structures can potentially be targeted using a peptide derived from the protein,” Nassour-Caswell said. “Our recent findings demonstrate how MARCKS phosphorylation status appears to be imperative for maintaining the direction and rigidity of TNTs. Additionally, we find that administration of the MARCKS peptide abrogates TNTs and induces a similar phenotype seen when MARCKS signaling dynamics are compromised. These results reveal a new perspective of cellular intercommunication between tumor and non-tumor cells as well as a potential way to target it.”

Earlier this year, the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB named Nassour-Caswell winner of the 2023 Mary Ann Harvard NextGen Scholar Award for her research in this area.