About us
The long-term objective of our research program is to develop breast cancer preventive and therapeutic strategies targeted to specific windows of breast development. The mammary gland is unique in that it goes through several distinct developmental states, such as pubertal or lactational. Our research shows that these distinct windows of mammary gland development are hot spots of risk for breast cancer development and progression. Specifically, our lab identified developmentally regulated stromal-epithelial remodeling programs as the underlying mechanism driving cancer progression during these windows of breast development. While the inherent plasticity of the normal breast microenvironment contributes significantly to breast cancer risk and outcomes, it also provides unique opportunities for life-cycle specific prevention and treatment strategies. By interrogating these windows of development and the impact they have on breast cancer, we hope to develop clinical prevention and control strategies that will reduce breast cancer incidence and improve survival.
Accolades
- June 2024: Hatun Duran Cete, MD, postdoctoral scholar, and Abby Liberty, PhD, WRHR scholar, both in the Schedin Lab, presented at the 2024 Gordon Research Conference in Mammary Gland Biology earlier this month held in Barga, Italy:
- Dr. Cete gave two oral and one poster presentation titled "Effects of Childbirth on Clinical Findings of Breast Cancer Metastasis".
- Dr. Liberty presented a poster titled "A protocol to prospectively study the effect of androgenic progestins on mammary tissue in people assigned female at birth: sampling, histologic and molecular strategies".
- June 2024: Congratulations to Michelle Ozaki, graduate student in the Schedin Lab, who has received the GSO Student Engagement Award for her exceptional engagement in furthering the welfare of graduate students at OHSU.
- Michelle has served as a GSO vice president and president two times. Alongside her sidekick Ben, Michelle reinvigorated GSO to be a thriving program as students were dispersed through the pandemic. She is a leader who has built community, engaged students in rectifying union contracts, recruited students to OHSU both virtually and in-person, she has built trust with administration, and is never afraid of tackling the hard stuff.
- April 2024: The Schedin lab in collaboration with Dr. Zhenzhen Zhang has published "Postpartum Breast Cancer and Survival in Women With Germline BRCA Pathogenic Variants" in JAMA Network Open.
- April 2024: Dr. Hatun Duran Cete, postdoctoral scholar in the Schedin lab, has been awarded an appointment with the IRACDA at OHSU training grant. The goal of the IRACDA at OHSU program is to develop a diverse group of highly trained scientists to become leaders in biomedical research and scholarship. Congratulations!
- 2023: Congratulations to Michelle Ozaki, graduate student in the Schedin lab, who has been invited to present at the NIH F99/K00 Awardees Annual Meeting on her abstract titled, "The liver, under reproductive control, generates a pro-metastatic niche post-wean".
- 2023: Congratulation to Michelle Ozaki, graduate student in the Schedin lab, who has been award a prestigious F99 award from the NIH that provides funding for 2 years of graduate work and 3 years of postdoc support. The title of her project is, "Fibroblasts in the establishment of the liver pre-metastatic niche."
- 2023: Congratulations to Dr. Pepper Schedin, Professor of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology, who has been appointed the inaugural recipient of the Leonard Schnitzer Chair in Breast Oncology. The Leonard Schnitzer Family established this endowed chair in Leonard’s memory to help advance clinically relevant cancer research and the work of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute to end cancer as we know it. An investiture ceremony will be held later this summer to honor the family and Schedin. Read more here.
- 2023: Congratulations to Hatun Duran Cete, MD, a postdoc in the Schedin lab, who is studying ways to target postpartum breast cancer and will be supported by an OHSU Fellowship for Diversity in Research. Breast cancers diagnosed within 5 years of childbirth have a 2-3-fold increased risk of liver metastasis. She will investigate the metastatic environment within the liver that facilitates breast cancer establishment in postpartum women, and will use mouse models of PPBC to investigate mechanisms. Featured on OHSU Now.
- 2023: The Schedin lab has recently published, "Isogenic Mammary Models of Intraductal Carcinoma Reveal Progression to Invasiveness in the Absence of a Non-Obligatory In Situ Stage" in Cancers. Read the paper here.
- 2022: Congratulations to Michelle Ozaki, graduate student in the Schedin lab, who is the recipient of the 2022 Associate Dean's Award For Exemplary Contributions to the Graduate Program.
- 2022: Congratulations to Dr. Pepper Schedin and the Schedin lab whose paper, “Postpartum breast cancer has a distinct molecular profile that predicts poor outcomes” published in Nature Communications, is the School of Medicine’s Paper of the Month.
- 2022: Dr. Pepper Schedin and colleagues recently published, "Young-Onset Breast Cancer Outcomes by Time Since Recent Childbirth in Utah" in JAMA Network Open. The publication was also featured on OHSU Now.
- 2021: Congratulations to Sarah Bernhardt, Ph.D., who is a postdoctoral scholar in the Schedin lab, who has been awarded a Prevent Cancer Foundation Fellowship.
- 2021: The Schedin lab has three publications to announce:
- "Immune Milieu Established by Postpartum Liver Involution Promotes Breast Cancer Liver Metastasis" in MDPI Cancers.
- "The definition of pregnancy-associated breast cancer is outdated and should no longer be used," in The lancet Oncology journal.
- "Vitamin D as a Potential Preventive Agent For Young Women's Breast Cancer" in Cancer Prevention Research.
- 2021: The Schedin lab has published, "Postpartum breast cancer has a distinct molecular," in Nature Communications. Read the paper here.
- 2021: Pepper Schedin, Ph.D. and colleagues published, "The definition of pregnancy-associated breast cancer is outdated and should no longer be used," in The Lancet Oncology journal. Read the commentary here.
- 2021: Alex Quackenbush Bartlett and the Schedin lab published, "Immune Milieu Established by Postpartum Liver Involution Promotes Breast Cancer Liver Metastasis" in Cancers. Read the paper here.
- 2020: The Schedin Lab published, "Characterization of weaning-induced breast involution in women: implications for young women’s breast cancer," in NPJ Breast Cancer. Read the paper here.
- 2020: The Schedin lab's Sonali Jindal published, Comparison of Mortality Among Participants of Women’s Health Initiative Trials With Screening-Detected Breast Cancers vs Interval Breast Cancers, in JAMA Network Open. Read the paper here.
- 2020: The Schedin lab's Elizabeth Mitchell published, Loss of myoepithelial calponin‐1 characterizes high‐risk ductal carcinoma in situ cases, which are further stratified by T cell composition, in Molecular Carcinogenesis. Read the paper here.
- 2020: Congratulations to Michelle Ozaki, graduate student in the Schedin Lab, who recently received the ACRS Scholar Award and was one of three OHSU students to receive a 2020 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
Dr. Pepper Schedin, Professor of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology, has been appointed the inaugural recipient of the Leonard Schnitzer Chair in Breast Oncology. The Leonard Schnitzer Family established this endowed chair in Leonard’s memory to help advance clinically relevant cancer research and the work of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute to end cancer as we know it. An investiture ceremony will be held later this summer to honor the family and Schedin. Read more here.