Dr. Julie Di Martino Awarded Susan G. Komen Career Catalyst Research Grant
The $442,502 Grant Will Support Dr. Di Martino’s Research on Breast Cancer Dormancy
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Julie Di Martino, Ph.D., assistant professor of cell and molecular physiology at New York Medical College, is one of just six recipients worldwide of a 2026 Susan G. Komen Career Catalyst Research Grant to advance her research into breast cancer dormancy.
“I am deeply honored to receive support from the Susan G. Komen Foundation,” says Dr. Di Martino. “This investment will allow my lab to pursue research to better understand why breast cancer can return years after treatment and how we might prevent this from happening. Patients can complete treatment and live for many years without evidence of disease but still carry the fear that the cancer may come back.”
Dr. Di Martino will utilize the $442,502 grant to study the earliest steps that allow breast cancer cells to survive, remain hidden, and later grow again.
“Breast cancer cells can spread from the primary tumor and hide in the body in a ‘sleeping’ state,” explains Dr. Di Martino. “While these cells are dormant, they do not grow, and cancer treatments cannot find or kill them. But years or even decades after remission, these cells can ‘wake up’ and begin to grow again. When this happens, breast cancer can return as metastatic disease, which is very difficult to cure.”
Dr. Di Martino’s lab has previously found that dormant breast cancer cells have high levels of the protein BDKRB2, which may help keep cancer cells in a sleeping state. “When we removed BDKRB2 from dormant cells, they began growing again,” she says. Opposite changes were also observed in the protein APJ, which might support metastatic growth.
For this project, Dr. Di Martino and her research team will further explore the possible roles of BDKRB2 and APJ in controlling whether breast cancer cells stay asleep or wake up.
“The long-term goal of this work is to find new ways to prevent breast cancer from coming back as a metastatic disease,” says Dr. Di Martino. “For patients, this could mean better strategies to reduce the lifelong fear of recurrence, especially for people with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer, who can face a risk of relapse many years after their first diagnosis. This research is an early but important step toward understanding how to stop metastatic recurrence before it starts.”
