Research
I am a young researcher and academic staff at Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Gadjah Mada. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Laboratory is the laboratory where i work on. The laboratory conducts several laboratory works for undergraduate students i.e. DNA plasmid isolation, transformation plasmid DNA into bacteria, isolation of human DNA, genetic polymorphism of metabolic gene (CYP1A1, GSTM1, and CYP2D6), bioinformatics (analyzing probe, protein homology and conserved domain analyses), protein purification and protein sequencing (dry lab).
I joined into one of the Faculty of Pharmacy UGM research groups named Cancer Chemoprevention Research Center (CCRC). CCRC has plenty collaborative researches with other institutions (universities, other research groups, industries, government research institutions). I am active contributing in CCRC, supervising the undergraduate students’ research and doing my research projects with the other CCRC members.
The in vitro researches included observing cytotoxicity of Indonesian plant’s extract and curcumin analogues in several cancer cells e.g. breast cancer cell line (T47D; MCF-7), cervical cancer cell line (HeLa), colon cancer (WiDr), macrophage cell line (RAW 246.7), myeloma cancer cell line, Vero cell line, NIH 3T3 cell line, human embrionic kidney (HEK 293) cell line and EAHY cell line.
Besides cytotoxicity, CCRC also investigate the chemopreventive and/or antiproliferative effect of sample using double staining, immunocytochemistry and AgNOR staining, flowcytometry and western blot. CCRC’s works in vivo i.e. studying chemopreventive effect in rat induced by 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) or benzo(a)pirene (BAP); investigating antiangiogenesis effect in chick chorioallantoic membrane. CCRC also conducted research using ovariectomized rats in order to explore phytoestrogen from natural products. Observations are done by using Haematoxylin-Eosin, TUNEL assay, AgNOR and immunohistochemistry staining. CCRC also developed bioinformatics research using Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) and study the docking of a compound and receptor using some software such as PLANTS and MOE.
I obtained my doctoral degree from Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München (University of Munich), Germany, under supervision of Prof. Dr. Ernst Wagner and Dr. Andreas Roidl. I was working on laboratory of pharmaceutical biotechnology-biology. My PhD topic is fighting cancer by overcoming chemoresistance and preventing metastasis.
Important progress has been achieved for breast cancer treatment in recent years, including novel targeted therapies. However, classical chemotherapy is still one of the most frequently used in the clinics and thus, chemoresistance presents a major cause of breast cancer treatment failure. Complexity of cellular processes in breast cancer, results in the failure of the treatment due to lacking of signaling pathway knowledge. Therefore, research on drug resistance development and solutions to overcome drug resistance are urgently needed to achieve better efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs.
I explored the potential of salinomycin, initially a cancer stem cell targeting drug, in circumventing drug resistance and preventing metastasis. First, I studied salinomycin effects on metastasis. Findings showed that salinomycin can strongly inhibit cancer cell migration independent of the induction of cell death. Together my my lab colleagues, we furthermore demonstrated for the first time that salinomycin treatment reduces metastasis formation in vivo, strengthening its role as promising anti-cancer therapeutic. Second, we showed that long-term salinomycin treatment of mesenchymal cancer cells resulted in salinomycin-resistant cells with elevated levels of epithelial markers, such as E-cadherin and miR-200c, a decreased migratory capability, and a higher susceptibility to the classic chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin, and thus could become exploited for improved cancer therapies by antagonizing the tumor-progressive effects of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Third, the mechanism of salinomycin sequential treatment evading doxorubicin resistance was to be investigated. Our findings suggested a novel treatment option for MDR tumors by sensitizing these tumors via salinomycin pretreatment. Additionally, activity and mechanism of salinomycin in sensitizing tamoxifen-resistant cells were also to be explored. Salinomycin co-treatment enhanced tamoxifen cytotoxicity in luminal A breast tumor cells by facilitating lysosomal degradation of receptor tyrosine kinases.
I analyzed the role of bone morphogenetic protein receptor II (BMPR2), a serine/threonine kinase and receptor of TGF-ß family member, in breast cancer chemoresistance. The potential use of BMPR2 as diagnostic marker and target for cancer therapy was further analyzed by several biological assay.
I also explored the mechanism of doxorubicin chemoresistance on breast cancer by proteomics approach, and also conducted some biological experiments of mesoporous apatite nanoparticles as selective anticancer agent.
Please feel free to contact me regarding to my research topic and research collaboration
Vielen dank!! Thank you!! Terima kasih!!