 |
Susan Pedigo and her students work at unraveling cancer's secrets. |
Susan Pedigo is the first female professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Like all women choosing a career in the male-dominated domain of the physical sciences, she is a pioneer. But she doesn’t see herself as one. Rather, she sees herself as a foot soldier in the struggle to unravel the wonders and secrets of the natural world.
“Nature is a really complicated mosaic,” she said. “We create little tiles in the mosaic. [Then] at some point, we understand.”
For the past three years, Pedigo has been conducting research on a tile in the huge mosaic of human cancers: a class of cell proteins called cadherins, which mediate cell adhesion and regulate the sorting of different cell types into their proper location during tissue development. Recent evidence suggests altered cadherins may play a role in the invasion and spread of tumor cells.
Why cancer cells do not adhere to each other like normal cells remains a mystery, but research by Pedigo and her students indicates that the loss of cadherin expression is correlated with the invasion of tumor cells in a variety of human carcinomas. Their work, which has attracted major funding from the National Science Foundation, is shedding new light on how cadherins participate in interactions within and between cells.
Pedigo is “a dedicated teacher and strives to involve undergraduate students in every aspect of her research,” said her department chair and colleague Charles Hussey.
“Several of the university’s best and brightest students who are enrolled in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College have based their senior theses on research conducted under her tutelage,” he said. “Her senior-level biochemistry course is heavily subscribed, with more than 120 students enrolled this past semester.”
Given the knowledge, enthusiasm and curiosity she imparts to her students, it is a good bet that many of them will become leaders in medical research or the field of biochemistry, Hussey said.
Pedigo is a rising star in UM’s chemistry and biochemistry department, preparing the researchers who may one day find new treatments for cancer or the doctors who may use them.
It’s a heady, if sometimes uncertain, role, but “her boundless energy and positive outlook mask any uncertainty she may feel about her role as the department’s first female professor,” Hussey said.