Cecilia Williams
Experimental Oncology
KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Research Interests

The research focuses on understanding key molecular mechanisms in cancer, using a combination of omic approaches, focused mechanistic experiments and in vivo studies. The goal is to understand critical cancer pathways so that we can define biomarkers of their activity and suggest better cancer treatments and preventive approaches to be tested and developed for clinical use.

One focus is to understand the estrogenic pathway. The hormone estrogen can increase the risk of breast cancer, while simultaneously protect against colon cancer. It is not understood exactly how, but if we can achieve a detailed knowledge of this mechanism, we would be able to design approaches that can protect against colon cancer while not promoting breast cancer, and we could also improve the treatments of these cancers. Estrogenic signaling is mediated by the estrogen receptors, ERalpha and ERbeta. They are ligand-activated nuclear receptors and as such excellent therapeutic targets. Inactivation of ERalpha is currently one of the most successful breast cancer treatments. However, resistance frequently develops and in order to overcome this, we need to understand the detailed mechanisms. My research also helps understand the impact that environmental or dietary estrogenic exposure may have.

Related to this, is the identification of molecular mechanisms involving microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs. The roles of these molecules are not fully understood, but there are indications that they have great potential as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Non-coidng RNA molecules are, to various extents, regulated by the estrogen receptors and are likely to contribute to the estrogenic effects. They appear to have key roles in the metastatic capacity of cancer cells, and possible influence so called cancer stem cells. The roles of non-coding RNA in this respect are central to reveal, as the cancer’s capacity to set metastasis is the ominous ability that can determine the prognosis for the patient.

Specific projects:

1. Utilizing large-scale omic techniques to decipher nuclear receptor and non-coding RNA mechanisms in cancer, a collaboration between KTH, University of Houston, and the Karolinska Institutet (funded by VINNOVA and EU, PI: Williams)
2. Defining the estrogen-mediated mechanism that protects against colon cancer (funded by the US National Institutes of Health, NIH/NCI, PI: Williams)
3. A proteomics approach defining epigenetic regulation in mammary stem/progenitor cells and their contribution to malignant transformation, a Collaboration with University of Aveiro (funded by the Portuguese Science Foundation, co-PI:Williams)

Key publications

Jian Zhu, Chunyan Zhao, Ting Zhuang, Philip Jonsson, Indranil Sinha, Cecilia Williams, Staffan Strömblad, Karin Dahlman-Wright. RING finger protein 31 promotes p53 degradation in breast cancer cells (2015) Oncogene, in press. PMID: 26148235.

Jun Wang, Efi Tsuoko, Philip Jonsson, Jonas Bergh, Johan Hartman, Eylem Aydogdu, Cecilia Williams. miR-206 inhibits cell migration through direct targeting of the actin-binding protein Coronin 1C in triple-negative breast cancer. (2014) Molecular Oncology, 8:1690-702. PMID: 25074552.

Anne Katchy, Caroline Pinto, Philip Jonsson, Trang Nguyen-Vu, Marchela Pandelova, Anne Riu, Karl-Werner Schramm, Daniel Samarov, Jan-Åke Gustafsson, Maria Bondesson, Cecilia Williams. Co-Exposure to Phytoestrogens and Bisphenol A Mimics Estrogenic Effects in an Additive Manner. (2014) Toxicological Sciences 138:21-35. PMID: 24284790

Chunyan Zhao, Yichun Qiao, Philip Jonsson, Jian Wang, Li Xu, Pegah Rouhi, Indranil Sinha, Amirhossein Kharman-Biz, Yihai Cao, Cecilia Williams, Karin Dahlman-Wright. Insights into the invasiveness of triple-negative breast cancer from genome-wide profiling of transcription factor AP-1. (2014) Cancer Research, 74:3983-94. PMID: 24830720.

Karin Edvardsson, Trang Nguyen-Vu, Sharanya M Kalasekar, Fredrik Pontén, Jan-Åke Gustafsson, Cecilia Williams. Estrogen receptor beta expression induces changes in the microRNA pool in human colon cancer cells. (2013) Carcinogenesis 34:1431-41. PMID: 23436804.

Group homepage/external homepage

https://www.kth.se/en/bio/research/proteomics/experimental-oncology-1.495149

More contact information

https://www.kth.se/en/bio/research/proteomics/proteomics-researchers/cecilia-williams-1.512635