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Many cancer treatments block hormones that drive tumor cell division and metastasis. These therapies only shrink tumors temporarily, however, as cancer cells can use alternative signaling pathways to reduce their hormone dependence. Drugs that target these pathways may halt tumor growth and extend patient survival.

Manisha Dagar has uncovered the details of a signaling pathway that drives advanced prostate cancer.

Manisha Dagar

Dagar has always been interested in science, especially biology. Her mother encouraged her to pursue higher education and a research career. She earned an undergraduate degree in biotechnology, and a summer internship at the National Centre for Disease Control in New Delhi gave her the lab experience she needed to pursue a Ph.D. at Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University in Haryana, India.

At Amity University, Dagar decided to study the molecular biology of cancer. She joined Gargi Bagchi’s lab, where she studies androgens, the male sex hormones, in prostate cancer. Previous research revealed that protein kinase A, which phosphorylates proteins to change their functions, can activate androgen signaling in the absence of hormones. Dagar and colleagues in the lab discovered how this aberrant activity contributes to prostate cancer progression.

Dagar studied protein kinase A function in a cell line derived from a prostate cancer patient. After optimizing protocols to measure protein levels in these cells, Dagar could track how blocking protein kinase A phosphorylation activity changed androgen signaling. Her work has revealed new drug targets that could treat advanced prostate cancer.

Dagar successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis in January. She hopes to pursue postdoctoral research studying cell signaling. Outside the lab, she enjoys reading and traveling.