# Calcium-signaling induced epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity in pancreatic cancer > **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2020 · $32,610 ## Abstract Project Summary Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is a devastating disease with a 5-year survival rate of roughly 7%. By 2020 it is predicted to be the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Two major contributors to these poor outcomes is the presence of metastasis and its high resistance to chemotherapy. Both metastasis and chemoresistance are associated with a process known as epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) by which epithelial cells undergo a phenotypic switch to confer properties similar to mesenchymal cells. This endows tumor cells with the ability to invade, metastasize and resist chemotherapy. Current approaches to understanding cancer EMT have relied on in vitro studies and exogenous factors or known developmental pathways. However, our inability to isolate and analyze EMT tumor cells in vivo has limited our ability to identify and target pathways that drive this process in vivo. The goal of this proposal is to delineate the molecular mechanisms of EMT in PDA tumors and identify pathways that could ultimately be targeted to improve clinical outcomes. To study EMT in the context of stochastically-arising pancreatic tumors, our laboratory developed a mouse model of PDA (the “KPCY” model) that employs a YFP lineage marker to label and track tumor cells in vivo. Using this model, we uncovered a novel “non-classical EMT” program operating in a majority of tumors by which cancer cells use protein re-localization (as opposed to classically-defined programs of transcriptional repression) to shed their epithelial phenotype. Aim 1 will focus on determining the mechanistic details of non-classical EMT while aim 2 represents a translational arm of our basic mechanistic study to unravel vulnerabilities of non-classical EMT and the potential use of calcium channel blockers to modulate sensitivity. In preliminary data, I found that calcium-calmodulin signaling is a driver of non-classical EMT. Treatment of PDA cells with a calcium ionophore, ionomycin, results in a loss of epithelial marker E-cadherin from the membrane and importantly occurs without mRNA repression. In addition, this process is dependent on calcium binding protein calmodulin. Subaims 1a and 1b will delineate the role and impact of calmodulin on calcium-induced EMT, migration, invasion and metastasis. In addition, after treatment of PDA cells with ionomycin, I observed a 20kDa shift in E-cadherin protein suggesting the addition of a post-translational modification (PTMs) regulating protein re-localization. Subaim 1c will identify calcium-induced PTMs regulating E-cadherin trafficking. Our lab has previously found that epithelial and mesenchymal tumor cells exhibit different sensitivities in vivo. Thus, the identification of a novel subtype of EMT (non-classical) allows for an opportunity to exploit vulnerabilities unique to this subtype (subaim 2a). In addition, given the role of EMT in chemoresistance, targeting EMT may improve the efficacy of anti-c... ## Key facts - **NIH application ID:** 9838665 - **Project number:** 5F31CA236269-02 - **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - **Principal Investigator:** Robert Norgard - **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.) - **Funding institute:** NIH - **Fiscal year:** 2020 - **Award amount:** $32,610 - **Award type:** 5 - **Project period:** 2019-01-01 → 2020-12-31 ## Primary source NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9838665 ## Citation > US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9838665, Calcium-signaling induced epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity in pancreatic cancer (5F31CA236269-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9838665. Licensed CC0. --- *[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*