2023 - BACR/AZ Student Award to attend the BACR Tumour Microenvironment and 3D Model Workshop in Nottingham, UK

I’m Rhianna Blyth, a final-year PhD student at the Centre for Cancer Immunology, University of Southampton in Professor Stephen Beers’ lab. Despite the established link between breast cancer and obesity, the underlying biological mechanisms remain unclear. This is partly due to a lack of in vitro and in vivo models capable of fully recapitulating the obese breast tumour microenvironment (TME). Therefore, my PhD project is focused on developing a 3D organotypic in vitro model of obesity associated breast cancer. This 3D model consists of breast cancer cells co-cultured with 4 other cell populations of the breast TME in a collagen matrix. This model can recapitulate aspects of the obese breast tumour microenvironment, replicating an inflammatory border around adipocytes; previously observed in obese patients.

In 2023, I was awarded a BACR travel award to attend and present at the BACR Tumour Microenvironment and 3D Model Workshop in Nottingham. As one of only a few PhD students selected to give an oral presentation, I was both extremely excited and nervous as this was my first in-person national conference presentation. This conference was really inspiring, and I gained a lot of ideas from listening to other presentations and networking, on what questions we could ask of our 3D model. 

Since attending the conference, I’ve presented my research at the EACR Goodbye Flat Biology conference in Berlin, at the Cancer Metabolism conference in Nice and undertook a lab placement abroad, funded by an EACR Travel Fellowship. During this lab placement, I learnt different techniques for culturing primary mammary adipose tissue in 3D matrices. I also learnt some key validation techniques for assessing viability, size and function of adipocytes and conducted an experiment co-culturing breast cancer cells with adipocytes to assess the feasibility of transferring this technique to my PhD project. This was an amazing visit, and I learned a lot of new skills which I am now applying to my PhD project.

Aside from my research, I also volunteer for the Connect to US programme and Peer Support Network at the University of Southampton, where I have mentored several postgraduate students. This role has involved giving online workshops and live Q&A sessions, including topics such as ‘Building a good supervisory relationship’ and ‘what to expect in your first month of study’. For the past two years, I’ve also volunteered with In2Research as a mentor, where I’ve held one-to-one and group sessions with undergraduate students looking to apply for PhD programmes. Last year I was nominated for Mentor of the Year and am thrilled that one of my mentees is now undertaking a PhD in cancer research! Being a mentor has been a really fulfilling experience and I’m grateful for programmes like this to exist for the next generation of scientists. 

Thank you to the BACR for this award! I’m excited to see what the future of 3D models of the TME holds. I look forward to attending future BACR meetings and I’m hoping to attend the New Developments in Breast Cancer Research – From Lab to Clinic conference later this year. 
 

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