Mucinomics: The Sweet Solution to Fighting Cancer

Mucinomics is the study of a class of proteins called mucins. We try to leverage changes in mucins for improved diagnostic or therapeutic strategies.

Stacy Malaker, PhD, 2024 CRI Lloyd J. Old STAR

Cancer immunotherapy provides researchers with a plethora of scientific angles to investigate that can lead to improvements for patient outcomes. The intersection of people, biology, and data guides CRI funding efforts, which empowers CRI scientists to pursue high-risk and higher-impact fields, such as using CRISPR’s genomic engineering capabilities to positively catapult immunotherapy progress. This type of scientific research is an intellectually rigorous endeavor that can produce a plethora of data that must be meticulously interpreted and communicated. When researchers make bold, informed decisions about their respective areas of investigation, countless patients, families, and caretakers can benefit from this hard work and dedication. 

Some CRI scientists pioneer their own niche fields of research, as is the case with Stacy Malaker, PhD, principal investigator in the Malaker Lab at Yale University and 2024 CRI Lloyd J. Old STAR. Dr. Malaker’s lab investigates glycoproteins like mucins and their role in immunotherapy as it impacts the activation of T cell receptors. 

The attachment of sugar molecules to proteins, or glycosylation, can lead to complexity in protein structure and makes it difficult to study these glycoproteins, as is the case with mucins. Her lab studies glycosylation of mucins, and Dr. Malaker has coined a special term, ‘mucinomics,’ to describe her study of mucin proteins.  

“The density of glycosylation makes mucins difficult to study, so my lab develops techniques that allow us to sequence them at the glycoproteomic level,” she explained in conversation with CRI. “Mucins are important in the context of immunotherapy because they are invariably altered in diseases.” Dr. Malaker’s research has detailed that the mucin domain might represent a class of new checkpoint inhibitors worth investigating further. Her work also states that mucin dysregulation has a negative impact on tumor progression. CRI-funded scientists have published research about the interaction of sugar molecules with proteins in cancer immunotherapy before, and Dr. Malaker will help further propel CRI’s scientific footprint in this specific area – she has been publishing research on the role of sugars molecules in cancer immunotherapy since 2017. In June of 2022, Dr. Malaker published research that stated her lab’s mucinomics approach revealed noteworthy molecular cancer signatures. 

Exploring cutting-edge avenues of study is crucial to improving immunotherapy treatment outcomes for cancer patients. By producing solutions for unmet needs in diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, like Dr. Malaker seeks to do through mucinomics, CRI scientists continue to help us create a world immune to cancer.