Spotlighting the complex ballet of cancer cell death

When he was an undergraduate at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka, Nishanth Kuganesan undertook a solo study probing the impact of radiation treatments on chromosomes in lymphocytes, a family of white blood cells in the immune system. The small-scale study of blood samples had measurable results: He found evidence of cellular damage. And he also found a career path: research on the biology of cancer.

Kuganesan, who said he has been “very passionate about science” since his boyhood, is now a fifth-year doctoral student at the University of Toledo. Come April, he is set to defend his dissertation, which details nuances of ferroptosis, such as the critical roles of the gene TP53, dubbed the “guardian of the genome,” and the retinoblastoma/E2F checkpoint in curbing cancer.

Nishanth Kuganesan

As he considers his future, this Ph.D. candidate in cell and molecular biology dreams of making a difference in battling disease. “I really want to be in research and development … either in academia or in industry,” Kuganesan said.

He credits his advisor William Taylor, professor and associate chair of the biological sciences department at the University of Toledo, for providing him with room to grow as a scientist. “He has given me a lot of freedom to explore in his lab,” Kuganesan said.

There, Kuganesan discovered several new steps in the biochemical ballet of ferroptosis. “It didn’t make sense at the beginning,” he recalled.

But the pieces fell into place, and as first author of the paper based on his team’s work on the tumor suppressor p53, Kuganesan received a 2023 JBC Herbert Tabor Early Career Investigator Award.

Beyond the thrill of new knowledge, Kuganesan’s award-winning research on the intricate cellular dance of tumor suppression could help refine future steps in chemotherapy, he said.

“Our findings will help drug makers be cautious when they are making therapeutic drugs.”