Identifying a Signaling Pathway with Potential to Treat Melanoma

Malignant melanoma is a devastating cancer in dogs that has no current long-lasting therapy. The fellow will evaluate whether targeting a specific signaling pathway (canonical or noncanonical Wnt pathway) can improve treatment of malignant melanoma in dogs. Identifying a targetable signaling pathway will lead to a better, longer-term successful treatment option for this devastating disease in dogs. This Fellowship Training Grant will help the researcher gain expertise in a number of research techniques that will help her in future academic endeavors as a veterinary scientist in medical oncology. Her career goal is to become a veterinarian-clinician-scientist capable of answering cancer-related questions with clinical and basic science research.