Sally E. Dickinson, PhD

Cancer Prevention and Control Program

Biography

Sally E. Dickinson earned her B.S. in Biology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. She then trained at the NIH for two years before entering graduate school at the University of Arizona, where she earned her PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Qin Chen, studying oxidative stress-induced signaling in heart cells. She then worked as a post-doc for Dr. G. Timothy Bowden studying UV-induced NMSC, first under an R25T fellowship and then under a K07 Career Development Award, both of which focused upon skin cancer prevention. In addition to being a Cancer Center member, she is currently Research Associate Professor in the Pharmacology Department at the UofA. She is also a member of the CBIO GIDP. 

Cancer Focus

Our team explores the roles of MAP Kinases, PI3-Kinase, mTOR/Akt and TLR4-induced signaling in the development of UV-induced non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC). We are examining the use of natural products or small molecule inhibitors of these targets to boost our efficiency at topically preventing NMSC. In collaboration with Dr. Georg Wondrak and Dr. Clara Curiel-Lewandrowski, we are focused upon understanding the role of Toll-like Receptor 4 (TLR4) in UV-induced skin carcinogenesis. Our work suggests that TLR4 contributes to UV-induced stress signaling in keratinocytes and increases in expression during the progression from normal skin to cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. TLR4 may therefore be an excellent target for chemoprevention of NMSC.