How Cancers Lose Their Nerve
CNE Seminar Series

ABSTRACT:

To image tumor-associated sensory neurons, we have recently integrated retrograde tracing and tissue-clearing with advanced 3D microscopy (J Microscopy 2024). We have also designed a 3D dorsal root ganglia (DRG)-on-chip (iScience 2026) and established cultures of mechanosensory neurons. Using our novel approaches, we found an increase in sensory neuron outgrowth and activity concomitant with breast tumor progression. Activated neurons release the peptide CGRP, which binds to CRLR/RAMP1 on cancer cells, decreasing their ability to metastasize. This cascade of events suggests that sensory innervation in primary tumors has a protective role.

BIOGRAPHY:

Bojana has been in love with glows in the dark ever since her childhood and discovered she can do it forever when she started her PhD training in Biophysics at Georgetown University. She continued to postdoc in Cancer Intravital Microscopy and now, her lab uses intravital microscopy technologies to study breast tumor microenvironment. Advanced microscopy tools & machine learning are combined with microfabrication, cancer cell and neurobiology. Most recent works of Gligorijevic lab focuses on deciphering role of sensory innervation in the metastatic cascade.