Background
Pam M. Van Ry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Brigham Young University and started at BYU in 2017. She did her post-doctoral work at the University of Nevada-Reno School of Medicine and as a research scientist in a pharmaceutical company, Strykagen. She did doctoral work at the University of Nevada-Reno School of Medicine in the Department of Pharmacology under the direction of Dean Burkin, receiving a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, 2014. He received B.S. degree from University of Nevada-Reno in 2010. During 2007-2012, Dr. Dahl was an adjunct faculty member in the Division of Quantitative Sciences at the University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center .
Pam M. Van Ry’s research interests are in uncovering mechanisms of fibrotic dieses and developing therapeutics to combat those diseases. Her work has appeared in journals including: Human Molecular Genetics, Molecular therapy, and Journal of Cell Science. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate classes in biochemistry.
Cancer Research
Over the ten years conducting research in the field of Fibrotic diseases, I continuously read articles highlighting the overlap between fibrosis and cancer metastasis. Over the years more research has established this connection and cancer metastasis is categorized as a fibrotic phase of cancer. I have applied my knowledge in the field of pulmonary fibrosis to develop a 3D lung organoid model. Our long-term goal is to identify key points of therapy in fibrotic metastatic cancers. To achieve this goal, our current research objective is to characterize the senescent cancer associated fibroblasts secretome and identify specific pathways that control metastasis.