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Camila dos Santos

Camila dos Santos

Associate Professor
Cancer Center Member

Ph.D., Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Brazil, 2007

dossanto@cshl.edu | 516-367-8869

dos Santos Lab Website   Faculty Profile

Among the changes that occur during pregnancy, those affecting the breasts have been found to subsequently modify breast cancer risk. My laboratory investigates how the signals present during pregnancy permanently alter the way gene expression is controlled and how these changes affect normal and malignant mammary development.

Camila dos Santos’ laboratory studies the epigenetic regulation of normal and malignant mammary gland development, with an emphasis on the alterations brought by pregnancy. Significant changes mark the pre- and post-pubescence mammary developmental stages, but those associated with pregnancy have the greatest effect on cellular function, tissue reorganization, and breast cancer susceptibility. Her group has recently found that mammary glands react differently to a second pregnancy than they do to the first one, with associated changes in DNA methylation. These findings suggested that pregnancy changes the state of mammary cells, and these may permanently alter how they react to the next pregnancy. In addition, the dos Santos lab is exploring how the pregnancy-induced epigenetic changes might influence cell transformation and the risk of breast cancer. This research utilizes genomic and computational approaches to define the pre and post-pregnancy mammary epigenome. An additional objective of the dos Santos’ laboratory is to use functional genomics to discover novel transcriptional regulators that modulate mammary stem cell self-renewal, lineage specification, and cell transformation. The long-term objective of Camila’s group is to improve the notion of the mammary epigenome during normal development and use this information to gain insight into new preventive and curative strategies to target breast cancer.

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All Publications

Gestational Breast Cancer - a Review of Outcomes, Pathophysiology, and Model Systems

14 Jul 2023 | Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia | 28(1):16
Callaway, Mackenzie, Dos Santos, Camila

Cathepsin B Is Not an Intrinsic Factor Related to Asparaginase Resistance of the Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia REH Cell Line

7 Jul 2023 | International Journal of Molecular Sciences | 24(13):11215
Costa, Iris, Effer, Brian, Costa-Silva, Tales, Chen, Chen, Ciccone, Michael, Pessoa, Adalberto, Dos Santos, Camila, Monteiro, Gisele

Immature natural killer cells promote progression of triple-negative breast cancer

8 Mar 2023 | Science Translational Medicine | 15(686):eabl4414
Thacker, Gatha, Henry, Samantha, Nandi, Ajeya, Debnath, Rahul, Singh, Snahlata, Nayak, Anupma, Susnik, Barbara, Boone, Melinda, Zhang, Qing, Kesmodel, Susan, Gumber, Sanjeev, Das, Gokul, Kambayashi, Taku, Dos Santos, Camila, Chakrabarti, Rumela

Clinical applications of 3D normal and breast cancer organoids: A review of concepts and methods

19 Nov 2022 | Experimental Biology and Medicine | :15353702221131877
Lewis, Steven, Callaway, Mackenzie, Dos Santos, Camila

Parity-induced changes to mammary epithelial cells control NKT cell expansion and mammary oncogenesis.

7 Dec 2021 | Cell Reports | 37(10):110099
Hanasoge Somasundara, Amritha, Moss, Matthew, Feigman, Mary, Chen, Chen, Cyrill, Samantha, Ciccone, Michael, Trousdell, Marygrace, Vollbrecht, Macy, Li, Siran, Kendall, Jude, Beyaz, Semir, Wilkinson, John, Dos Santos, Camila

Engineered asparaginase from Erwinia chrysanthemi enhances asparagine hydrolase activity and diminishes enzyme immunoreactivity - a new promise to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia

8 Oct 2021 | Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology
Costa, Iris, Moura, Debora, Lima, Guilherme, Pessoa, Adalberto, dos Santos, Camila, de Oliveira, Marcos, Monteiro, Gisele

New Design Rules for Developing Potent Cell-Active Inhibitors of the Nucleosome Remodeling Factor (NURF) via BPTF Bromodomain Inhibition.

13 Sep 2021 | Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
Zahid, Huda, Buchholz, Caroline, Singh, Manjulata, Ciccone, Michael, Chan, Alice, Nithianantham, Stanley, Shi, Ke, Aihara, Hideki, Fischer, Marcus, Schönbrunn, Ernst, Dos Santos, Camila, Landry, Joseph, Pomerantz, William

PELP1/SRC-3-dependent regulation of metabolic PFKFB kinases drives therapy resistant ER+ breast cancer.

8 Jun 2021 | Oncogene
Truong, Thu, Benner, Elizabeth, Hagen, Kyla, Temiz, Nuri, Kerkvliet, Carlos, Wang, Ying, Cortes-Sanchez, Emilio, Yang, Chieh-Hsiang, Trousdell, Marygrace, Pengo, Thomas, Guillen, Katrin, Welm, Bryan, Dos Santos, Camila, Telang, Sucheta, Lange, Carol, Ostrander, Julie

Characterization of Gene Expression Signatures for the Identification of Cellular Heterogeneity in the Developing Mammary Gland.

14 May 2021 | Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia
Henry, Samantha, Trousdell, Marygrace, Cyrill, Samantha, Zhao, Yixin, Feigman, Mary, Bouhuis, Julia, Aylard, Dominik, Siepel, Adam, Dos Santos, Camila

Characterization of Organoid Cultures to Study the Effects of Pregnancy Hormones on the Epigenome and Transcriptional Output of Mammary Epithelial Cells

1 Nov 2020 | Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia | 25(4):351-366
Ciccone, M, Trousdell, M, Dos Santos, C

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