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Irida Kastrati, PhD

Assistant Professor, Cancer Biology
Research Interests:
  • Breast cancer
  • Selenoproteins
  • Racial disparity
  • Therapy targets in therapy resistance and recurrence
  • Drug development

Bio

Worldwide, breast cancer accounts for nearly a quarter of all cancers in women, and it is estimated that 1.7 million women are diagnosed with the disease annually. Most breast cancer deaths are due to aggressive therapy-resistant disease that eventually spreads to other parts of the body (metastasis). Our longstanding interest is to apply a multi-disciplinary approach to identify the fundamental cancer biology of deadly disease. Then, we implement drug discovery tools and evaluate novel therapeutics to improve patient outcome and reduce mortality. More recently, our lab is also working to address the racial disparity in breast cancer. Despite similar incidence, African American women die of breast cancer at a much higher rate than Caucasian women. In the Chicago area, this disparity is even more pronounced than the nation as a whole. While the reasons behind this disparity are multifactorial, recent data also point to biological components. Our goal is to identify these biological drivers and develop therapeutic strategies to eliminate disparity. 

Institute of Translation Medicine video highlighting Dr. Kastrati's research.  Click here to view.

Education

  • BA in Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago
  • PhD in Medicinal Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago
  • Postdoctoral fellowship in Cancer Biology, University of Illinois

Research Interests

  • Breast cancer
  • Selenoproteins
  • Racial disparity
  • Therapy targets in therapy resistance and recurrence
  • Drug development

Publications/Research Listings

  • Selenium and breast cancer - An update of clinical and epidemiological data  Flowers, B; Poles, A; Kastrati, I  Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics  2022 Nov 13;732:109465. doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2022.109465. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36379313
  • SELENOF is a new tumor suppressor in breast cancer  Zigrossi, A; Hong, LK; Ekyalongo, RC; Cruz-Alvarez, C; Gornick, E; Diamond, AM; Kastrati, I  Oncogene  2022  Feb;41(9):1263-1268. doi: 10.1038/s41388-021-02158-w. Epub 2022 Jan 27. PMID: 35082382
  • Loss of SELENOF induces the transformed phenotype in human immortalized prostate epithelial cells  Hong, LK; Kadkol, S; Sverdlov, M; Kastrati, I; Elhodaky, M; Deaton, R; Sfanos, KS; Wang, H; Liu, L; Diamond, AM  International Journal of Molecular Sciences  2021 Nov 7;22(21):12040. doi: 10.3390/ijms222112040. PMID: 34769469; PMCID: PMC8584825
  • The NF-κB pathway promotes tamoxifen tolerance and disease recurrence in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers  Kastrati, I; Joosten, SEP; Semina, SE; Alejo, LH; Brovkovych, SD; Stender, JD; Horlings, HM; Kok, M; Alarid, ET; Greene, GL; Linn, SC; Zwart, W; Frasor, J  Molecular Cancer Research  2020 Jul;18(7):1018-1027. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-19-1082. Epub 2020 Apr 3. PMID: 32245803; PMCID: PMC7335344
  • Insights into how phosphorylation of estrogen receptor at serine 305 modulates tamoxifen activity in breast cancer  Kastrati, I; Semina, S; Gordon, B; Smart, E  Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology  2019 Mar 1;483:97-101. doi: 10.1016/j.mce.2019.01.014. Epub 2019 Jan 16. PMID: 30659843; PMCID: PMC6368394
  • Coactivation of estrogen receptor and IKKβ induces a dormant metastatic phenotype in ER-positive breast cancer  El-Shennawy, L; Dubrovskyi, O; Kastrati, I; Danes, JM; Zhang, Y; Whiteley, HE; Creighton, CJ; Frasor, J  Cancer Research  2018 Feb 15;78(4):974-984. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-17-1686. Epub 2017 Dec 11. PMID: 29229606; PMCID: PMC5815896
  • Design, synthesis, molecular modeling, and biological evaluation of novel amine-based histone deacetylase inhibitors  Abdelkarim, H; Neelarapu, R; Madriaga, A; Vaidya, AS; Kastrati, I; Karumudi, B; Wang, YT; Taha, TY; Thatcher, GRJ; Frasor, J; Petukhov, PA  ChemMedChem  2017 Dec 19;12(24):2030-2043. doi: 10.1002/cmdc.201700449. Epub 2017 Nov 30. PMID: 29080240; PMCID: PMC5881582
  • A novel strategy to co-target estrogen receptor and nuclear factor-κB pathways with hybrid drugs for breast cancer therapy  Kastrati, I; Siklos, MI; Brovkovych, SD; Thatcher, GRJ; Frasor, J  Hormones and Cancer  2017 Jun;8(3):135-142. doi: 10.1007/s12672-017-0294-5. Epub 2017 Apr 10. PMID: 28396978; PMCID: PMC5690576
  • Structural and molecular mechanisms of cytokine-mediated endocrine resistance in human breast cancer cells  Stender, JD; Nwachukwu, JC; Kastrati, I; Kim, Y; Strid, T; Yakir, M; Srinivasan, S; Nowak, J; Izard, T; Rangarajan, ES; Carlson, KE; Katzenellenbogen, JA; Yao, XQ; Grant, BJ; Leong, HS; Lin, CY; Frasor, J; Nettles, KW; Glass, CK  Molecular Cell  2017 Mar 16;65(6):1122-1135.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2017.02.008. PMID: 28306507; PMCID: PMC5546241
  • Synthesis and characterization of an aspirin-fumarate prodrug that inhibits NFκB activity and breast cancer stem cells  Kastrati, I; Delgado-Rivera, L; Georgieva, G; Thatcher, GR; Frasor, J  Journal of Visualized Experiments  2017 Jan 18;(119):54798. doi: 10.3791/54798. PMID: 28190074; PMCID: PMC5352264

Additional Publicatons List