Funded Research and Projects
To date, Catherine Peachey Fund has invested in $3,838,186 in breast cancer research in Indiana.
The funds raised to support the following grants were raised by hundreds of volunteers over many years. Projects include Just Peachey: Bearing Fruit Cookbook, Polo with Peachey, Wine Tasting with Peachey at Peace Water Winery, walks/runs, quilt sales, concerts and the sale of Just Peachey: Cooking up a Cure.
The Amelia Project
The Amelia Project at the IU Simon Cancer Center $95,000.00: For 13 years, with Dr. George Sledge as Chair, the Catherine Peachey Fund hosted an annual meeting for scientists and clinicians from across Indiana and guests from around the country. It was at these meetings that many of the projects listed below took form and were then funded by the CPF. It was at the Amelia Project that the first movement toward the Komen Tissue Bank began. The KTB has now gone on to become the only biorepository for normal breast tissue in the world.
2023-2024 Funded Projects
Novel Inhibitors that Target Bone Metastasis: $100,000
Led by Laurie Littlepage, Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame’s Harper Cancer Research Institute. Inhibiting bone metastasis and secondary metastasis from bone will significantly improve breast cancer patient prognosis. This research hopes to determine a treatment that will be specific to inhibiting bone metastasis without causing the systemic toxic effects often experienced by patients. Our gift will be used to purchase required equipment, mouse support, and graduate student support.
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Using Machine Learning to Understand TNBC Mechanisms: $26,400
Led by Amber Mosley, Ph.D. and Gina Chang, MS at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Mosley recently completed a multidisciplinary study supported by the Catherine Peachey Fund in 2022 that compares TNBC cell lines following single agent versus dual agent treatment. Advances in proteomics-related software have now generated a new opportunity to reanalyze the datasets generated in that study to gain additional molecular insights, with the hope of providing additional insight into creating effective, tumor-specific treatment for triple negative breast cancer.
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Investigating Nonsurgical Prevention Therapy for BRCA1/2 Carriers: $11,525
Led by Jaeyeon Kim, Ph.D. and Rana German at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. In addition to gene-mutation analysis, researchers also plan to analyze changes in metabolite in serum samples from the Komen Tissue Bank to identify metabolomic changes linked to progesterone levels and progesterone signaling. This research has promising potential to help improve individual risk assessment among BRCA1/2 carriers beyond BRCA1/2 mutations and usher in nonsurgical cancer prevention, sparing these women prophylactic surgeries.
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Improving Breast Cancer Radiotherapy by Theragnostic Targeting of Tumor Supporting Macrophages: $15,000
Led by Matthew Scarpelli, Ph.D. at Purdue University’s Women’s Global Health Institute
The main objective of this project is to determine the cytotoxic mechanisms and anti-tumor efficacy of integrating TAM targeting within radiotherapy regimens for breast cancer. This research will provide knowledge regarding the role of immunosuppressive macrophages in modulating radiotherapy responses in breast cancer; and it will lead to development of more effective therapeutic strategies for advanced breast cancers. Given ferumoxytol’s safety in humans has already been extensively studied and it is widely available as an FDA approved compound, repurposing ferumoxytol to augment breast cancer radiotherapy could lead to rapid reductions in morbidity and mortality.
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​Therapeutic Resistance Research: $20,000
Led by Elizabeth Yeh, PhD, IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. Therapeutic resistance is a critical issue in treatment, especially with more aggressive forms of breast cancer such as Her2+. Some patients benefit from the use of therapies such as HER2 inhibitors but many fail therapy and almost all HER2+ patients become resistant to treatment, indicating a critical, unmet need to prevent treatment failure. The research will investigate two different methods for delivering a therapeutic agent which targets Connexin 43 and re-establishes these intercellular communications. The study will be the first to use pharmacological methods with Connexin 43 and could help determine the best delivery method.
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Komen Tissue Bank Collaboration with Research Jam: $34,000
Led by Kathi Ridley-Merriweather, PhD. Although males are not considered a minority population in the broad sense, their inclusion in breast cancer research is still in its infancy. Recruitment of men both for breast cancer research and tissue samples would benefit from specialized research and targeted approaches. Research Jam will conduct focus groups and create recruitment materials.
Cancer Interception Strategies for Black Women: $25,000
Led by Tarah Ballinger, MD. To improve breast cancer risk knowledge and receipt of prevention services in our highest risk population - young, Black women - additional support infrastructure is needed at the system level. Rather than relying on minority women to access services themselves, researchers will use lay navigators from the community to bring those services to them. They will conduct a hybrid study of the early implementation and clinical effectiveness of this strategy that will be poised to change practice.
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Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research: $25,000
Led by Hari Nakshatri, PhD and Michele Cote, PhD at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. The IUCCC breast cancer team recently conducted a cell-of-origin analysis of inflammatory breast cancer which showed that most of these cancers do not originate from the same cells as other breast cancers. This is a remarkable finding which the breast cancer research team and the Komen Tissue Bank would like to further explore via development of models using normal tissue samples. This gift will be used for the development of new models to study how inflammatory breast cancers originate and how different they are compared to common breast cancer subtypes. IUSCCC breast cancer researchers can harness knowledge gained from this project to develop even more IBC research.
Revealing Genome Integrity Defect Targets in Breast Cancer: $15,000
Led by Ann Kirchmaier, PhD, and Nadia Atallah Lanman, PhD at Purdue University. Researchers will evaluate a patient-derived breast cancer line with a known genotype to 1) identify the sites of and types of replication fork impediments genome-wide 2) determine which drugs this breast cancer line is sensitive to, and identify breast cancers with related sensitivities and genetic defects computationally plus 3) demonstrate how chemotherapeutics influence replication through impediments and growth for the original breast cancer line plus a second breast cancer line predicted to respond similarly. This proposed pilot will provide data and demonstrate collaboration for a DoD BCRP proposal resubmission on how replication impediments can serve to inform therapeutic strategies for breast cancers.
Role of the Proteome of Cytoplasmic Lipid Droplets in Metastasis: $15,000
Led by Dorothy Teegarden, PhD, Kimberly Buhman, PhD, and Chaylen Andolino, PhD at Purdue University. Increased cellular storage of fatty acids (FAs) in cytoplasmic lipid droplets (CLDs) is associated with increased cancer aggressiveness and poorer patient outcomes, suggesting that CLDs contribute to metastasis. Researchers will 1) complete additional proteomic analyses of CLDs from cell lines with altered metastatic capability, 2) validate the association of selected proteins with CLDs whose presence in the CLD fraction is associated with metastatic capacity, and 3) preliminarily test the role of the specific proteins or pathways in steps required for metastasis. It is critical to narrow down the selection of proteins so that future studies can be designed to target specific pathways or proteins associated with CLDs to identify how their association with the CLDs promotes metastasis, thereby allowing for the future development of targeted strategies to prevent or treat metastases.
Komen Tissue Bank Summer Intern Program: $8,000
The Komen Tissue Bank intern program provides engagement opportunities for students during their undergraduate and graduate careers and moves the work of the KTB forward more quickly. This summer, the KTB will host a total of three part-time interns. Their tasks will range from managing the tissue bank social media accounts (which help previous and potential donors understand what their generosity makes possible) to assisting directly with analysis of work done in the tissue bank lab. The interns will also review data provided by tissue donors to ensure accuracy – a critical task since samples are used by researchers all over the world.
Pink4Ever Ending Disparities Stay Alert, Stay Alive: Breast Health Summit 2023: $3,000
The Catherine Peachey Fund will be an Education Sponsor for the Pink4Ever Breast Health Summit held in Indianapolis. The mission of Pink4Ever Ending Disparities is to eliminate breast cancer disparities for black women through advocacy, education, research, and empowerment. The Breast Health Summit is their annual outreach and education initiative, bringing together healthcare professionals, community members, survivors, caregivers, advocates and volunteers and policy makers for a day of learning and engagement.
2022 Funded Projects
Male Breast Cancer Research: $70,000
Led by Hari Nakshatri, PhD, Anna Maria Storniolo, MD, and Josh Manghelli, DO at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. Relatively little is known about the biology of the normal breast in men, how cancer develops from very few cells of the breast, and what catastrophic genomic changes initiate breast cancers in men. Current treatments for male breast cancer are based on drugs that work on breast cancers in women. The Peachey Fund gift of $70,000 will allow researchers to create an initial infrastructure to begin exploring this disease. This gift will be used for laboratory reagents to create cell lines, procuring patient tumors for animal studies, cost associated with procuring and maintaining animals, drug screening studies, and partly support a technician to conduct these experiments.
Metabolic Regulation of Breast Cancer Metastasis by Aquaporin-7: $100,000
Led by Laurie Littlepage, PhD, Harper Cancer Research Institute at the University of Notre Dame. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in women, and 90% of deaths in breast cancer patients are due to therapeutic resistance of metastatic tumors. Finding new markers and therapies to overcome resistance in breast cancer patients is critical to helping these patients. A way that cells can become resistant is by altering their metabolism. Understanding how metabolism contributes to disease progression will help to identify efficacious treatments for breast cancer patients. Dr. Littlepage and her lab discovered that Aquaporin-7 (human AQP7/mouse Aqp7), a protein that transports water and glycerol, is a negative prognostic marker of overall survival and metastasis in breast cancer patients. They showed that Aqp7 knockdown (KD) decreases proliferation and significantly decreases primary tumor burden as well as lung metastasis in vivo. Metabolomics on Aqp7 KD cells and tumors revealed significantly altered lipids, redox, and arginine metabolism pathways. With this gift, they will purchase a powerful dissection microscope, a microplate reader (used to detect various microscopic events in samples), and a Aqp7 knockout (KO) mouse. These items will be used to study how AQP7 regulates metabolic pathways that sensitize breast cancer cells to anti-tumorigenic properties upon inhibition in cultured breast cancer cells. The requirements for Aqp7 in metastasis and in endocrine therapy resistance will be evaluated both in cells and in mice. The requested animals and equipment will be essential for their ability to study the mechanisms by which AQP7 regulates metabolic reprogramming to enable breast cancer metastasis and to exploit Aqp7 inhibition for therapeutic benefit in overcoming endocrine therapy resistance. The data they generate will serve as preliminary data to support both R01 and DOD BCRP submissions.
Continuation of Application of Emerging Proteomics Technologies to Breast Cancer: $10,000
Led by Amber L. Mosley, PhD at the Indiana University School of Medicine. In 2020, the Catherine Peachey Fund’s gift of $20,000 allowed the Mosley lab to investigate whether a unique process called thermal proteome profiling could be a new tool in the fight against breast cancer drug resistance. With the 2020 Peachey support, Dr. Mosley was able to analyze one half of the samples she has available. With those samples, the lab found that low dose treatment (0.1uM) of triple-negative breast cancer cells with the bioactivatable compound IB-DNQ leads to changes in the thermal stability of several cell cycle related factors. The data from the project clearly show the utility of thermal proteome profiling in uncovering unique mechanisms in diverse cell systems including triple-negative breast cancer cells. $10,000 in additional support would cover the team member time and consumables of three additional steps of analysis: Perform thermal proteome profiling (TPP) studies on high dose IB-DNQ exposed triplenegative breast cancer cells, Bioinformatics analysis of the TPP and phosphoproteomics (signaling) to determine if TPP analysis of TNBC drug treatment models is more sensitive to cancer cell changes in response to drug than the more standard signaling analysis approach, and Follow up experiments using purified proteins to confirm some of the findings in our low dose IB-DNQ studies. When combined, these three steps of analysis create a foundation for expanding this work into different breast cancer types and possible early detection of molecular changes in cells that lead to cancer and drug resistance.
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Pink4Ever Ending Disparities Stay Alert, Stay Alive: Breast Health Summit: $3,000
The Catherine Peachey Fund will be an Education Sponsor for the Pink4Ever Breast Health Summit held in Indianapolis. The mission of Pink4Ever Ending Disparities is to eliminate breast cancer disparities for black women through advocacy, education, research, and empowerment. The Breast Health Summit is their annual outreach and education initiative, bringing together healthcare professionals, community members, survivors, caregivers, advocates and volunteers and policy makers for a day of learning and engagement.
Early Breast Cancer Evaluation in High-Risk Subjects Using Advanced MRI Modalities: $15,000
Led by Joseph V. Rispoli at Purdue University’s Women’s Global Health Institute. Breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has gradually become more available as a diagnostic tool for evaluation of treatment response, preoperative staging, tissue perfusion, and biopsy guidance. The aim of this study is to develop a comprehensive imaging protocol using both an in-house and a commercially available flexible coil to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of advanced MRI methods for early breast cancer detection in high-risk subjects with dense breast tissue or family history of breast cancer.
Targeting FGFR to Prevent Obesity-induced Metastatic Recurrence in Breast Cancer: $15,000
Led by Michael K. Wendt, PhD at Purdue University’s Women’s Global Health Institute. Fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) signaling is suggested as a promoting factor in obesity-induced breast cancer recurrences. This study will utilize Wendt’s newly developed mouse model to study the role of diet-induced obesity (DIO) on systemic breast cancer dormancy and metastatic outgrowth. Using this novel approach, they aim to investigate the role of FGFR signaling in obesity-mediated breakage of the tumor dormancy. Their long-term goal is to elucidate the molecular mechanism behind the crosstalk between obesity and breast cancer progression.
2021 Funded Projects
A Culturally Informed, Multi-theory Approach to Testing Messaging for a Future Intervention to Increase Black Women’s Intentions to Participate in a Breast Cancer Clinical Trial: $14,000
Led by Kathi Ridley-Merriweather, MA, Communication and Minority Outreach Coordinator with the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. Minorities comprise 40% of the United States population, but are underrepresented in clinical trials, meaning a substantial subset of Americans are not fully benefitting from clinical and biomedical developments. Black women in particular have been historically underrepresented in medical research and clinical trials. This study will experimentally test messages in an online setting with Black and African American women as participants. A goal sample size of 350 participants will be randomly selected through Qualtrics, a cloud-based platform for creating and distributing web-based surveys. The participants will be divided into five randomly assigned conditional groups, with each group receiving a unique level of messaging encouraging Black women to participate in the KTB clinical trial by donating their healthy breast tissue. This effort will test culturally targeted messaging for use in a future intervention to increase Black women’s intentions to participate in breast cancer research.
Evaluating the Impact of Complex Extracellular Matrix Proteins Using a High-throughput Magnetically Actuated 3D Microtumor Environment for More Precise Breast Cancer Drug Screening: $15,000
P.I. Luis Solorio, PhD, Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. The objective of this work is to use their recently developed 3D drug-screening platform to evaluate the effect of the ECM biochemical composition and mechanical properties on metastatic breast cancer growth and cancer drug responsiveness. Dr. Solorio and team will use primary metastatic cancer cells isolated from pleural effusions collected from the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. The drugs tested will be selected to match the drugs that were administered to the patient as part of their treatment plan. The dose response of the patient specific samples will retrospectively be compared to the available clinical data characterizing the patient response. Upon completion of this preliminary work, they expect to have all necessary preliminary data to robustly demonstrate their platform’s unique drug screening capability for NIH R01-level extramural funding.
Understanding the Role of Obesity in Facilitating Resistance to HER2-targeted Therapies: $15,000
P.I. Mike Wendt, PhD, Purdue University Center for Cancer Research. The aim of this project is to investigate how STAT3 contributes to metastasis and development of drug resistance in obesity-associated breast cancer. Based on their preliminary data, they hypothesized that STAT3 is important in driving obesity-related breast cancer metastasis and blockade of this pathway will result in reduced lipid droplet formation, decreased expression of lipid synthesizing enzymes, and decreased HER2 drug resistance. The first specific aim is to establish the role of STAT3 in obesity-driven primary tumor growth and metastatic progression by using an in vivo model. The second aim is to identify if STAT3 activation is sufficient to drive changes in lipid metabolism and resistance to HER2-targeting agents. The third aim will identify if ruxolitinib can prevent acquisition of the resistance to HER2-targeting agents by targeting JAK-STAT3 pathway in metastatic HME2 cells. In addition to securing larger scale funding, the longterm goal is to develop targeting strategies to overcome drug-resistance in the metastatic setting. Towards achievement of this goal, the overall objective of this project is to define how STAT3 contributes to lipid metabolism during metastasis and acquisition of drug resistance. These studies will be the first molecular examination which identifies the reason behind accumulation of the excess amount of lipid droplets in drugresistant breast cancer metastases.
Increasing the Tumor Penetration of Cancer Drugs to Improve the Treatment of
Metastatic Tumors: $45,000
Joseph Ipe, PhD, Indiana University School of Medicine. Understanding the factors that regulate how drugs penetrate tumors should help improve the effectiveness of many FDA-approved drugs. Until we better understand the mechanisms underlying the variable penetration, it will likely continue to be a problem for any new drugs that are developed. This project will visualize the tumor penetration of two common anti-cancer drugs in patientderived tumors grown in animals. By combining spatial genomic and drug-imaging technologies to visualize gene expression and drug penetration patterns across the same samples, the team expects to identify the reasons why some tumors can prevent the drug from penetrating certain cells. The goal is to eventually block those mechanisms. Next, the research team will combine their expertise in drug therapies and genetics with the imaging abilities of a collaboration lab to look for gene signatures in human tumor tissues that can be used to predict drug penetration. The ultimate goal of this project is to ensure that each patient receives a treatment that will have the highest likelihood of penetrating and eliminating the metastases. The funding will provide support for the animal studies and spatial transcriptomics experiments. This research team has already identified grant opportunities through the American Cancer Society and National Institutes of Health that would allow for future work based on the preliminary data generated. The NIH has particularly indicated interest in projects studying drug penetration in tumors.
Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank Intern Program: $10,000
Anna Maria Storniolo, MD, Indiana University School of Medicine. The Catherine Peachey Fund again provided full funding for the annual KTB intern program. This program provides engagement opportunities for students during their undergraduate and graduate careers and moves the work of the KTB forward more quickly. The support of these students is essential to fulfilling the mission of the KTB, but the expense is significant in the KTB budget and not provided for in Susan G. Komen grant funding. Beyond projects completed, KTB interns also experience professional growth and gain valuable insights into a career in cancer research and the life sciences. Ensuring funding is available to cover this important expense will increase the accomplishments of the KTB in 2021.
2020 Funded Projects
Application of Emerging Proteomics Technologies to Breast Cancer: $20,000
Led by Amber Mosley Ph.D., this research team would like to determine if an innovative molecular tool called thermal proteome profiling can help observe and characterize the changes that occur as a cell moves from normal to cancerous to evading treatment and possibly metastasizing. Potentially answering the question of why some breast cancer cells survive after treatment.
Komen Tissue Bank Intern Program: $10,000
This summer the KTB hosted 5 interns remotely with tasks including managing social media accounts, assisting directly with analysis of work done in the tissue bank lab, review for accuracy of data points researchers all over the world are using to analyze the normal tissue samples and drafting a manuscript on how the KTB is changing breast cancer research.
R.E.D. Alliance/Stay Alert, Stay Alive: Breast Health Summit: $2,000
The Catherine Peachey Fund will be a “Health & Wellness” sponsor for the R.E.D. Alliance Breast Health Summit held in Indianapolis. The mission of the R.E.D. Alliance is to eliminate the disparity in breast cancer mortality between African American women and Caucasian women in Indianapolis. The Breast Health Summit is their annual outreach and education initiative, bringing together healthcare professionals, community members, survivors, caregivers, advocates and volunteers and policy makers for a day of learning and engagement. Note: due to COVID-19, this event has been postponed to 2021.
Identifying the Motives of Minority Women to Donate Healthy Breast Tissue: $1,380
This project’s goal is to identify why African-American, Hispanic/Latina and Asian women choose to donate healthy breast tissue to the Komen Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center. To accomplish this, the research team led by Katherine E. Ridley-Merriweather MA, will conduct guided interviews with minority tissue donors to better understand the determinants and considerations that led these women to choose to donate healthy breast tissue. Minorities account for fewer than 10% of patients enrolled in clinical trials and there has been considerable attention on the need to increase the number of racial and ethnic minority group members involved in cancer clinical research. This project will provide insights that can be applied to the recruitment practices of many current and future clinical trials in breast cancer research.