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Jacqueline Reilly

Mentor: Raymond J. Hohl, MD, PhD

Year Entered Into Program: 2011-2014

Graduate Program: Pharmacology

PhD Institution: University of Iowa, 2014

Research Description

Prostate carcinoma is the most common cancer of males in the United States and the second most deadly cancer. Of the prostate cancer deaths, more than 80% will have skeletal metastasis, making novel cancer treatments and adjunct therapies targeting metastasis vital in decreasing death rates. One proposed scheme of cancer metastasis utilizes previous work establishing the general importance and sufficiency of the Rho family in altering proteins involved in cell survival, cell cycle and the proteolysis step of invasion. While a majority of the work has focused on Rho family mRNA and selective cancers, protein activity at various stages of cancer metastasis and inhibition of specific Rho proteins have not been explored. Utilizing nitrogenous bisphosphonates as inhibitors upstream of the Rho GTPase family both in vivo and in vitro, we hope to elucidate the mechanism by which the modified Rho subfamily of proteins are able to promote tumorigenesis, in addition to testing various bisphosphonates as novel prostate cancer adjunct therapies.

Awards

  • Fellowship appointment on the Pharmacological Sciences Training Program (NIH T32 GM067795), University of Iowa, 2011-2014

Publication(s)

  1. Reilly, J.E., Neighbors, J.D., Tong, H., Henry, M.D., Hohl, R.J.:  Targeting geranylgeranylation reduces adrenal gland tumor burden in a murine model of prostate cancer metastasis. Clin Exp Metastasis 32(6):555-66, 2015.  PMCID: PMC4819324
  2. Reilly, J.E., Zhou X., Tong, H., Kuder, C.H., Wiemer, D.F., Hohl, R.J.:  In vitro studies in a myelogenous leukemia cell line suggest an organized binding of geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase inhibitors. Biochem Pharmacol 96(2):83-92, 2015.  PMCID: PMC4831703
  3. Fletcher, J.T. and Reilly, J.E.: Fast dye salts provide fast access to azidoarene synthons in multi-step one-pot tandem click transformations. Tetrahedron Lett. 52(42):5512-5515, 2011. PMCID: PMC3285242  

Awards since graduating from the U of IA

  • Standards of Leadership Award- for my work developing an early development pipeline project
  • Standards of Leadership Award- for my work leading AACR and our pipeline dec
  • Standards of Leadership Award- for my work on medical insights
  • Standards of Leadership Award- for my work leading ASCO-GU
  • Standards of Leadership Award- for my work in Northern CA

Research