HESBURGH LECTURE SERIES 2012 Program - Alumni Association ...

Crislyn D’Souza-Schorey, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Biology; Walther Cancer Institute Chair
Biography
Crislyn D’Souza-Schorey received her doctorate from the University of Texas Health Science
Center at San Antonio, following which she was a postdoctoral research fellow and research
assistant professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She joined the
University of Notre Dame faculty as the Walther Cancer Institute Junior Chair in 1998. A major
line of research investigation in her laboratory is to understand the molecular and cellular
basis of initiation and progression of epithelial cancers. A second line of research involves
understanding the molecular basis of rare neurodegenerative disorders such as Huntington’s
disease.
D’Souza-Schorey has received several awards and honors during her career, including the
Robert Welch Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, the Lucille P. Markey Post Doctoral Fellowship in
Pathobiology, the Leukemia Society of America Special Fellowship, Young Investigator Awards from the Leukemia Research
Foundation, and the Michael K. Guest Award for Innovative Cancer Research. Research in her laboratory has been supported
by federal and non-federal sources including the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, U.S. Department of
Defense, the National Institutes of Health, and the Walther Cancer Foundation (formerly, the Walther Cancer Institute).
D’Souza-Schorey serves on scientific review panels of the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense-
Breast Cancer Research Program. She also serves as a scientific reviewer for international funding agencies such as the
Welcome Trust, the Dutch Cancer Society, and the Health Research Board of Ireland. At Notre Dame, she is actively involved in
undergraduate and graduate education, both in the classroom and the laboratory.
Lectures
Fighting Cancer: Understanding Mechanisms of Cancer Progression
The detachment of cancer cells from the surface of a tumor signals the beginning of a critical phase in the spread of some of the
most notorious cancers, including cancers of the breast, prostate, ovary, and skin. This lecture will present newly discovered
mechanisms that result in aggressive cancers that could serve as useful and effective platforms for diagnosis and therapeutics to
complement existing strategies.
Rare but Real: Understanding the Cellular Basis of Huntington’s Disease and Niemann-
Pick Disease Type C
A rare (or orphan) disease has a prevalence of fewer than 200,000 affected individuals in the United States. Huntington’s Disease
(HD) and Niemann-Pick Disease Type C (NPC) are rare neurodegenerative disorders. While HD is predominately a late-onset
disease that affects adults, NPC is most commonly a childhood disease. Both diseases are linked to genetic defects that result in
misfolded proteins. This lecture will describe recent investigations on HD and/or NPC, which have identified new proteins of
interest that are affected by, and perhaps regulators of, disease pathogenesis.
38 The Hesburgh Lecture Series, 2012 Program
Categories
Science