Emily Zboril receives a travel grant and the Endocrine Society Outstanding Abstract Award at ENDO 2025 for her therapeutic research on breast cancer metastasis
Emily Zboril, a 4th Year PhD candidate in the program of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, at the Department of Cellular, Molecular, and Genetic Medicine, VCU, received a travel grant and an Endocrine Society Outstanding Abstract Award at ENDO 2025, San Francisco, California. The ENDO conference is the leading global meeting on endocrinology research and clinical care, with over 7000 attendees, nearly 2500 abstracts, and over 200 sessions.
Under the mentorship of Dr. J. Chuck Harrell, Department of Pathology, Emily’s abstract titled “Lasofoxifene acts as a partial ER agonist in the bone microenvironment”, focused on her PhD dissertation project that essentially aims to find alternative treatments for patients with breast-to-bone metastasis of ER+ breast cancer.
“Usually, patients are treated with drugs that downregulate estrogen receptor (ER) signaling universally, which slows cancer growth if it is ER-reliant. However, it can accelerate a ‘vicious cycle’ in which compounds that downregulate ER in the bone decrease formation and increase resorption, causing the release of growth factors, and driving progression when tumors become treatment-resistant. My research shows that Lasofoxifene was able to remain bone protective in that microenvironment, as well as reduce metastatic progression in pre-clinical animal models”, said Emily, when asked about the therapeutic significance of her research.
Emily primarily credited her achievement to the support and guidance she received from her mentor, Dr. Harrell, and her amazing lab members. “I’d love to quote Snoop Dogg and say, ‘I’d like to thank me for believing in me’, but it has really been a team effort!”, exclaimed Emily. She also mentioned her unwavering appreciation for the collaborators, VCU core facilities, and her dissertation committee.
Talking about her passion for breast cancer research, Emily remarked, “On a personal note, my mother was diagnosed with triple-positive breast cancer in 2018 (she currently has NED or No Evidence of Disease!). The succeeding treatment period made me realize that there were many effective targeted treatments, but even though ER+ primary cancer treatments are quite effective, many patients still get recurrent, and often treatment-resistant cancers, with bone being the most common secondary site. While previous decades of research have advanced primary breast cancer treatment, I want to be a part of the research era where successful strides are being made for patients with metastatic disease as well.”
Upon winning her first conference award (and several more to come!), Emily expressed her admiration for conferences like AACR, SABCS, and ENDO that bring together a ton of researchers and clinicians to kick-start the much-needed conversations about what kind of collaborative translational work will help patients in achieving a brighter cancer-free future.
Sponsorship Information: This project was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute 1F31CA290944-01. Data for this project was generated in part by the VCU Tissue and Data Acquisition and Analysis Core, the VCU Cancer Mouse Models Core, and the VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center Proteomics Shared Resource with funding from the Massey Cancer Center from NIH-NCI Support Grant P30 CA016059.
By Sumit Saha,
Department of CMGM, VCU SOM
Date: 1 August 2025