Elise is a rising senior at Western Washington University, where she conducts undergraduate research in Dr. Jeanine Amacher’s structural biology and protein biochemistry lab. While in the Amacher lab, Elise has studied protein-peptide interactions in a variety of proteins/domains – including Sortase A enzymes, SH3 domains, and PDZ domains – and recently published a first-author journal article. At UCLA, Elise works for Dr. Lily Wu in the Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology; her focus for the summer is to investigate the inhibitory effect of statins on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell lines. Statins are commonly used to lower blood cholesterol by inhibiting HMG CoA reductase but have been seen to pleiotropically inhibit a variety of aggressive cancer types, including TNBC. TNBC does not exhibit overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and does not express estrogen or progesterone receptors (ER and PR). Two of the most common therapies for breast cancer are anti-HER2 and endocrine-based and are therefore not effective against TNBC. Statins present a possible therapeutic method for treating this type of cancer, but not much is currently known about the mechanism/pathways at play. This project aims to gain insight into the inhibitory action of statins in this context, particularly as it relates to epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, metastasis, and hypoxia. Elise is very thankful for this wonderful opportunity to work with everyone in the Wu lab and for the support of both the Amgen Foundation and UCLA.