On the Cancer Research Frontier is a series spotlighting the scientists, doctors, nurses, patients, and philanthropists at the Cancer Vaccine Institute. Join us in meeting the brilliant minds behind our cancer vaccines and immunotherapies as they share their professional journeys and personal stories.
“I want my research to matter,” says Dr. Madeline Dennis, ”because I've seen cancer affect my life. I've seen it affect my family. Everyone knows someone who's had cancer in some way, shape, or form. After seeing my mom go through chemotherapy, I want to see us make cancer vaccines a reality.”
A Seattlite and postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Dennis joined the CVI exactly a year ago. Since then, she has been developing a vaccine to help prevent breast cancer. Her commitment to this work is a deeply personal one, as she was aware of her family’s breast cancer history from an early age. Dr Dennis said she had known about her mother’s BRCA1 status for as long as she could remember, but she did not understand what it meant until she got into college and majored in biochemistry.
“I started learning about all these genetic concepts and how family history can really alter how your body develops diseases, including cancer,” Dr. Dennis said. “It was a lot of memorizing, but it was easy to memorize because it was fascinating.”
Her affinity for science was also rooted in family, nurtured by her mother, a high school chemistry and environmental science teacher. Dr. Dennis recalls helping her mom test out the classroom lab experiments and grade quizzes. She felt encouraged to be curious, ask questions, and solve problems — “that’s what science is all about,” Dr. Dennis said.
But when asked what she would do if she was not a scientist, she said that might be the one question she can not find the answer to.
“I like science so much that I can’t even imagine myself walking away from it,” she chuckled.
Working with CVI Principal Scientist Dr. Denise Cecil, Dr. Dennis is currently developing a vaccine to disrupt the connection between obesity and cancer to ultimately prevent breast cancer. Obesity is a risk factor for breast and other cancers as the fat tissue can trigger an immune response that causes sustained inflammation. Over time, this inflammation promotes malignant cell transformation. Unfortunately, the inflammation cannot be eliminated simply by losing weight. She and colleagues at the CVI are creating an anti-inflammatory vaccine called ADVac to reverse metabolic dysfunction and reduce the risk of developing breast cancer.
“The biggest reason I wanted to go into cancer research,” she said, ”is because the only preventative option right now for people with an increased genetic risk for breast cancer is a double mastectomy. That is a really invasive surgery. So the concept of having something to help prevent cancer, like a vaccine, brought me here.”
Before coming to the CVI, Dr. Dennis was a doctoral student at Washington State University where she studied the viral origins of cancer. Her research focused on a set of proteins in the body called APOBEC. These proteins help protect against viral infections by degrading viruses they come into contact with. ”They essentially mutate the virus to death,” Dr. Dennis said. However, some cancers, including breast cancer, seem to trigger this immune response. The problem: whereas a virus becomes dysfunctional from mutations, tumors sometimes thrive off them. Throughout her doctoral studies, Dr. Dennis sought ways to reduce or stop this dysregulated immune response from fueling cancer progression.
Dr. Dennis first encountered the CVI when she and her family took a tour of the lab. She was in awe when CVI Director Dr. Nora Disis explained how vaccines can be designed to teach the immune system to identify and eliminate cells before they even become cancerous. When she graduated, Dr. Dennis immediately reached out to Dr. Disis, eager to help develop cancer therapies that improve patients’ lives. The women in her life, including her mother, aunt, and grandmother, are her inspirations.
“One of the things that I really like about working at the CVI is how many women are in the lab,” Dr. Dennis said. “I love that so many women are interested in this field and are part of this great mission that Dr. Disis is spearheading for all of us.”