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Student earns two awards for PAX2 poster by Mary Helen Yarborough Public Relations Willietta Gibson is a model of genetic predispositions, which also happens to be her area of interest and blossoming expertise.   The rising fourth-year MUSC Graduate Studies doctoral candidate researches how some genes cause cancer by turning off “good genes.” A poster and abstract she produced on the subject won her back-to-back national awards recently.   In late March, Gibson, a Durham, N.C., native, earned first place and a $1,000 cash award for her presentation at the 2nd Annual National Symposium on Prostate Cancer at Clark Atlanta University. Prior to that, she took home first place in the 18th Annual National Back Graduate Student Conference in Las Vegas, Nev. Both awards resulted from her demonstration of how the presence of a certain gene may influence a cell to turn into cancer cells.   Her topic is complicated, but as a member of a highly achieving family, she has no difficulty expressing the conditions and causes for some of life’s most daunting illnesses.   Her topic was, “PAX2 Oncogene Regulates Human Beta Defensin-1 Expression and Mediated Cell Death in Prostate Cancer Cell Lines.” In as simplest terms possible, Gibson explained that her research and poster demonstrated how inflammation of the prostate may lead to prostate cancer because the genes that are supposed to get rid of inflammation, for some reason, are absent in prostate cancer.   What she was able to determine in prostate cancer could also be useful in identifying causes, and potential cures, for other cancers.   “PAX2 is a gene that occurs in development,” Gibson explains. “But PAX2 expression after [cell] development is supposed to be turned off. In prostrate cancer, it was found to be expressed aberrantly.”   Asked whether her proud parents understand what she is doing or talking about, she responded: “Yes, they do.” And why not? Her father was a chemist for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, her mother is a math teacher; one sister is a pediatrician, and the other sister is getting her master's of engineering at N.C. State University.   “The reason I came to MUSC was because my sister, Keisha, was a pediatric resident here,” Gibson said.   Earlier, Gibson was unsure of what field to pursue. After receiving her bachelors of science in molecular biology at Winston-Salem State University, Gibson worked at Laboratory Corporation of America in the Research Triangle Park, N.C.   “I did PCR (preliminary chain reaction) tests that were used to determine sub-types for HPV (human papillomavirus). The work was more repetitive, but I became interested and I wanted to know why this leads to cervical cancer, and how people develop cancer,” she said.   Most humans have proto-oncogene, which are genes normally expressed, or developed, by the body for normal cellular function, Gibson said. “When that gene, the proto-oncogene, is mutated, it can become cancer-causing, or an oncogene,” she said.   Carlton Donald, Ph.D., is Gibson’s mentor at MUSC. He had performed preliminary studies of beta defensin-1, which is an anti-microbial peptide that is found in prostate tissue.   “He found that human beta defensin-1 is expressed in benign prostate tissue, but its expression is lost in prostate cancer,” Gibson said. “That’s important because research has found that inflammation may play a role in the development of prostate cancer.   “I’m looking at why the beta defensin-1 is lost in prostate cancer. We have found that it may be regulated by PAX2, which is a transcription factor not normally found in developed tissue,” Gibson said.   Gibson said that she found that when PAX2 is turned on, it may be the factor that turns off the beta defensin-1. “By turning off PAX2, it will increase human beta defensin-1, which will kill prostate cancer cells.”   The next step in the study likely would be undertaken by students that follow Gibson. “Later on, someone will do more experimentation and use it in animal models to see if it shrinks cancerous tumors,” she said. “Actually, I won’t be doing that, somebody else here will.”   After graduation, Gibson plans to continue research in cancer, what causes it, and obviously, how to cure it. Friday, May 12, 2006 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publication at 849-1778, ext. 201.