Initiatives

Project 1 with Catalina and Monserrat – Automated micronucleus and nuclear condensation quantification for FOXM1 induced chromosomal instability – FOXM1 is a transcription factor that regulates different mitotic signaling proteins. Overexpression of FOXM1 is associated with cancer aggressiveness and aneuploidy in breast cancer, and recent work has suggested an important role for its condensation state in the nucleus. Breast epithelial cells were engineered with an inducible active ΔN-FOXM1 with or without S376 mutations that alter condensation. The objective is to quantify the effects on chromosomal instability by micronuclei formation and nuclear condensation. Cells were arrested in G2 and then released for 12 hours to evaluate micronuclei formation during the first cell cycle. The FOXM1 expression and nuclear condensation were evaluated by immunofluorescence in the ΔN-FOXM1, FOXM1S376A, and FOXM1S376E cells previously arrested in the G1/S and G2 phases. We found that FOXM1S376A cells have increased nuclear condensation compared with FOXM1S376E cells, where FOXM1 expression is diffusely localized in the nucleus. We are developing automated segmentation pipelines to distinguish micronuclei in hundreds to thousands of high-magnification images with the goal of defining the early impact on chromosome missegregation.

Project with Jeffrey Hsu

Annabelle Cao, a Senior at Western Albemarle High School, worked with the SASCO data manager, Andrea Denton, presenting a poster at the annual research symposium entitled A Biometric Analysis of Citation Practices Among Basic and Clinical Faculty in SASCO.  Annabelle will be attending Columbia University as an Egleston Scholar fall 2026.

My project will investigate how CCNF regulates FOXM1 activation throughout the cell cycle by combining protein measurements with transcriptional snapshots and computational modeling. First, I’ll synchronize cells at key cycle phases and directly quantify Foxm1 and Cyclin F protein levels at each stage. Next, I’ll use RNA-seq data from those synchronized cultures—and from breast cancer samples—to infer stage-specific FOXM1 transcriptional activity. Finally, I’ll map those activity profiles onto a model to reveal how CCNF-driven timing shapes FOXM1 dynamics and downstream regulatory programs.  2026 update: Rose is a Barry Goldwater Scholar in addition to previous honors of Ronald E McNair Scholar, John P & Anne Welsh McNulty Scholar, and NIH STEP UP Scholar.