Research Overview

The Bushnell Oncomaterials Research Group (ORG) focuses on advancing biomaterials and animal models to investigate how the tissue microenvironment, particularly immune interactions, regulates breast cancer metastasis. By developing synthetic metastatic niches and immunocompetent models, ORG aims to elucidate the mechanisms underlying metastatic dormancy and recurrence. Our approach integrates systems biology to analyze the biochemical, biophysical, and cellular components of dormant versus proliferative niches, aiming to identify therapeutic targets for metastatic breast cancer. Through collaborative efforts with other engineers, biologists, and clinicians, ORG seeks to pioneer new strategies for preventing metastatic relapse and improving outcomes for millions of breast cancer survivors.

Education

BS, Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2013
MS, Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2014
PhD, Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, 2019

Selected Publications

Bushnell GG, Sharma D, Wilmot HC, Zheng M, Fashina TD, Hutchens CM, Osipov S, Wicha MS. Natural killer cell regulation of breast cancer stem cells mediates metastatic dormancy. bioRxiv. 2023 Oct 3;. doi: 10.1101/2023.10.02.560493. PubMed PMID: 37873211; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10592904. (pre-print)

Bushnell GG, Deshmukh AP, den Hollander P, Luo M, Soundararajan R, Jia D, Levine H, Mani SA, Wicha MS. Breast cancer dormancy: need for clinically relevant models to address current gaps in knowledge. NPJ Breast Cancer. 2021 May 28;7(1):66. doi: 10.1038/s41523-021-00269-x. Review. PubMed PMID: 34050189; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8163741.

Bushnell GG, Orbach SM, Ma JA, Crawford HC, Wicha MS, Jeruss JS, Shea LD. Disease-induced immunomodulation at biomaterial scaffolds detects early pancreatic cancer in a spontaneous model. Biomaterials. 2021 Feb;269:120632. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2020.120632. Epub 2020 Dec 23. PubMed PMID: 33418200; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7870556.

Bushnell GG, Rao SS, Hartfield RM, Zhang Y, Oakes RS, Jeruss JS, Shea LD. Microporous scaffolds loaded with immunomodulatory lentivirus to study the contribution of immune cell populations to tumor cell recruitment in vivo. Biotechnol Bioeng. 2020 Jan;117(1):210-222. doi: 10.1002/bit.27179. Epub 2019 Oct 3. PubMed PMID: 31544959; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6991704.

Bushnell GG, Hardas TP, Hartfield RM, Zhang Y, Oakes RS, Ronquist S, Chen H, Rajapakse I, Wicha MS, Jeruss JS, Shea LD. Biomaterial Scaffolds Recruit an Aggressive Population of Metastatic Tumor Cells In Vivo. Cancer Res. 2019 Apr 15;79(8):2042-2053. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-18-2502. Epub 2019 Feb 26. PubMed PMID: 30808673; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6467791.