Kelsey Gallant Wins First-Place Honors for Breast Cancer Presentation

Biology major Kelsey Gallant, C’2018, recently won first-place honors for an oral presentation based on her summer research project at Harvard University on breast cancer. Gallant presented her findings at the 16th Minority Access National Role Models conference in Baltimore, Maryland, in September. Her research focused on studying mechanisms of resistance in Akt signaling in breast cancer. Akt signaling acts as a critical regulator of cell survival and proliferation. As a first-year student, Gallant conducted research at Morehouse School of Medicine. Also, she has conducted research at Duke University, where she studied transforming growth factor beta signaling in pancreatic cancer. With plans to become a physician-scientist, Gallant aspires to create a more integrative approach in the treatment of cancer driven by personalized medicine and therapeutic nutrition.