Linking the Macroenvironment and Microenvironment to Study Breast Cancer Etiology and Progression

Speaker

Alexandra Harris, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Cancer Prevention Fellow, NCI, NIH

Biography

Dr. Alexandra R. Harris is a postdoctoral fellow and transdisciplinary breast cancer researcher at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), with joint appointments in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics and the Center for Cancer Research. A basic scientist by training, Dr. Alexandra Harris earned her B.S. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, as well as her M.S. in Biology, from the University of California, San Diego and a Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from the University of Virginia School of Medicine conducting research within the Biomedical Engineering department. Dr. Harris went on to receive her M.P.H. in Quantitative Methods from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. As a Cancer Prevention Fellow at NCI for 3.5 years, Dr. Harris has bridged multiple divisions to conduct cross-cutting and interdisciplinary research in breast cancer disparities across the cancer control continuum. Her research program integrates experimental and population science approaches to investigate the interplay between socioenvironmental risk factors and biological determinants and their impact on breast tissue and its microenvironment in ways that can contribute to socioeconomic and racial disparities in risk and outcomes. She has authored over 20 peer-reviewed publications, received several national awards and early career recognitions for her research and mentorship, and served in leadership, task force, panels, and editorial positions to facilitate global conversations on breast cancer disparities.

Abstract

Dr. Harris’ interdisciplinary breast cancer research program investigates how social and biological determinants shape the breast microenvironment in ways that may contribute to disparities in risk and outcomes. In two racially diverse, cross-sectional studies, she employed genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and pathology-based approaches to link chronic stressors at the individual, interpersonal, and neighborhood level to an inflammatory and tumor-permissive microenvironment within both healthy and cancerous breast tissue; in both, she found effects were more pronounced in Black women. Her current efforts seek to understand how molecular and cellular features within the breast tissue microenvironment influence breast cancer risk, biology, and outcomes in high-risk populations by examining the molecular underpinnings of reproductive and histopathologic breast cancer risk factors, including age at menarche, involution of terminal duct lobular units, mammographic density, and benign breast disease through transcriptomic profiling, with the overarching goal of informing breast cancer precision prevention strategies.