Research & Publications/Recherches et publications

RESEARCH

IBCN is pursuing  joint program projects that address its mission: (1) Nutrition and dietary analysis; (2) Biomarkers for primary prevention; (3) Environmental epigenetics; (4) Knowledge transfer 

  1. Nutrition and dietary analysis (Lead : Lebanon) Program leaders : Farah Naja (American University of Beirut, Lebanon) Participants : All six pilot countries + Mongolia, Ireland, the Netherlands Current goals : Develop dietary tools from biovalidation studies in country with country-investigators.  Conduct extensive data analysis including biomarker levels in the blood with additional work on fecal microbiome; conduct studies across lifespan with anthropometric indicators of nutritional status and biochemical indicators of diet; develop research methods for a global approach; 
  2. Biomarkers for primary prevention (Lead : USA, Uruguay) Program Leader : Mary Beth Terry (Columbia U.) Current Participants : All six pilot countries Current goals :  Establish biobanks of tissues (blood, urine, breast if possible) and mammographies (as appropriate) from relatives and friends of patients recently diagnosed with breast cancer (proof-of-principle with 20 “families”); work on international surveys linked to environmental risk;
  3. Environmental epigenetics (Lead : France, Taiwan) Program coLeaders : Sophie Lelièvre (Institut de Cancérologie de l’Ouest, ICO), Lie-Fen Shyur (Academia Sinica, Taiwan) Current Participants : All six pilot countries Current goals : Establish risk-on-a-chip platforms; design pollutant and other environmental risk factors screening pipeline to test their effect on the epigenome; design protective bioactives screening pipeline; develop SOP for plant extracts; identify epigenetic traits to test and design probes; prepare the foundations for a shared plants/fungi biorepository;
  4. Knowledge transfer (Lead : France, Ghana) Program Leader : Martine Bellanger (ICO, France) Participants : All six pilot countries + Ireland; Current goals :  under “the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) type of cancer research”, to understand women’s motivations and expectations for participating in breast cancer primary prevention research; design studies related to socioeconomic impact on risk; establish projects to promote primary prevention research based on economics and policy.

PUBLICATIONS

Naser Al Deen, N., Atallah Lanman, N., Chittiboyina, S., Lelièvre, S., Nasr, R., Nassar, F., Zu Dohna, H., AbouHaidar, M., & Talhouk, R. (2021). A risk progression breast epithelial 3D culture model reveals Cx43/hsa_circ_0077755/miR-182 as a biomarker axis for heightened risk of breast cancer initiation. Scientific reports, 11(1), 2626. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82057-y

Lelièvre, S. A., Bellanger, M., Seewaldt, V., Talhouk, R. S., & Terry, M. B. (2020). Editorial: Perspectives in Primary Prevention Research for Breast Cancer: A Focus on Gene-Environment Interactions. Frontiers in medicine, 7, 621959. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2020.621959
Chhetri, A., Chittiboyina, S., Atrian, F., Bai, Y., Delisi, D. A., Rahimi, R., Garner, J., Efremov, Y., Park, K., Talhouk, R., & Lelièvre, S. A. (2019). Cell Culture and Coculture for Oncological Research in Appropriate Microenvironments. Current protocols in chemical biology, 11(2), e65. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpch.65

Tenvooren, I., Jenks, M. Z., Rashid, H., Cook, K. L., Muhlemann, J. K., Sistrunk, C., Holmes, J., Wang, K., Bonin, K., Hodges, K., Lo, H. W., Shaikh, A., Camarillo, I. G., Lelièvre, S. A., Seewaldt, V., & Vidi, P. A. (2019). Elevated leptin disrupts epithelial polarity and promotes premalignant alterations in the mammary gland. Oncogene, 38(20), 3855–3870. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-019-0687-8

Fostok, S., El-Sibai, M., Bazzoun, D., Lelièvre, S., & Talhouk, R. (2019). Connexin 43 Loss Triggers Cell Cycle Entry and Invasion in Non-Neoplastic Breast Epithelium: A Role for Noncanonical Wnt Signaling. Cancers, 11(3), 339. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers11030339