Magnus Edlund, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Molecular Urology and Therapeutics Program, Department of Urology
Emory University

Research Interests:

When prostate cancer cells progress from primary tumor to aggressive metastasis, dramatic changes occur in their abilities to communicate with and attach to their surroundings. Our work links the fields of cell-cell communication and cell-matrix adhesion, by focusing on the cell-cell regulation of integrin cell adhesion molecule activities.

Dr. Edlund's laboratory makes use of mixed cell co-cultures to reproduce specific cell-cell interactions, while we study gap-junctional and other forms of connections between the different cell lines. They assay cell adhesion molecule activities in the co-cultured cells. Using patient samples, and taking advantage of human prostate cancer cell lines that represent different stages in cancer progression, his lab has chronicled the changes in integrin use (as well as integrin expression) that accompany cancerous progression, have identified several candidate, therapeutic targets within the integrin family, and have found that, in preliminary studies, inhibiting the function of these proteins in mice hosting prostate tumor cells effectively inhibits tumor growth during treatment, with immediate relapse when treatment is halted. His laboratory has also begun to explore lipid regulation of cell adhesion function in prostate cancer cells. Not only may cells use lipid transfer as a means of cell-cell communication, but microdomains of phospholipids, cholesterol and glycosphingolipids are arranged non-randomly within the lipid leaflets of all cells' plasma membranes, creating curvatures and variations in membrane properties and thicknesses. We are asking whether these variations result in integrin protein transmembrane domains being exposed to differing degrees of interaction with kinases and structural cytoskeletal-linking proteins (which themselves interact only with subsets of lipids). Because lipid compositions of cell membranes are directly affected by alterable dietary and environmental factors, we are hopeful that their role in cell adhesion will provide new therapeutic targets for prostate cancer treatment.

Related Links: