Research

Margaret Briehl, AZCC/UA

Briehl's Research Statement

My research centers around understanding why cancer cells behave as they do. In our laboratory, we are particularly interested in learning how cancer cells become resistant to death. In the past we determined that a kind of stress, called oxidative stress, can make cells resistant to treatments that would normally kill them. This led us to the question whether chronic oxidative stress turns normal cells into cancer cells. To investigate this question, we have isolated cells that are resistant to oxidative stress and are exploring the cancer-like properties of these cells. We have used these cells to test whether uranium may harm mammalian cells by causing oxidative stress. In the future, we will expand on the latter studies by developing models for exploring how uranium interacts with cells. Current student projects in my laboratory include yeast to test whether uranium can cause DNA mutations.