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JABSOM fourth-year medical student Thomas Mandel Clausen may have uncovered a surprising clue in the fight against pancreatic cancer. His discovery centers on a tiny sugar, or carbohydrate, molecule that most people never knew existed, and it could help doctors detect cancer earlier and slow its spread.
The research, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, (2024 Impact Factor of 13.6) began a year and a half before Clausen even set foot into JABSOM.
"I started working on this research right after COVID, while at UCSD" Clausen said. "We had just published a big study on COVID and had an idea to try some of the reagents and techniques that we had developed on pancreatic cancer, and we discovered something interesting."
Clausen's research focuses on a sugar molecule called HSAT. Most doctors are familiar with the sugar Heparin, which is similar to HSAT, and works with a protein called antithrombin to stop dangerous blood clots. Clausen's team found that healthy pancreas
cells make HSAT, but so do the very first stages of cancer.
"Basically, pancreatic cancer cells are making a heparin-like sugar, something we thought was very rare in humans. So that's the big discovery," Clausen said.
"We found that pancreatic cancer patients, specifically in the early stages, the tumors are producing this HSAT, and it seems to be increased in serum as well, so it potentially could be used to detect cancer."
One day, Clausen hopes doctors might use HSAT as a simple blood marker to catch pancreatic cancer earlier, when it's easier to treat. Clausen also discovered a twist. When his team used CRISPR gene editing to block cancer cells from making HSAT, the tumors actually got worse.
"When we knocked out the ability of the tumor cells to produce HSAT, we actually found that the tumors became more invasive” he said.
So while HSAT might help signal early cancer, it also seems to hold tumors back from spreading too quickly.
For Clausen, a soon-to-be physician scientist, publishing this study has been years in the making, all while juggling the demands of medical school. He credits the success of the study to a large network of amazing colleagues across multiple universities that were able to help get it all together to a complete story.
"It feels amazing. It's been a long journey. I've been working on this particular manuscript for the three years that I've been a medical student. It's a huge relief to see it out," he said.
Clausen, who started as a biochemist from Denmark, did his PhD in clinical cancer research and two postdocs after that. It was only then that he decided to go to medical school.
"Back where I'm from in Denmark, we call people like me eternal students, the ones that never finish," he jokes. "As a scientist, we do a lot of cool studies, we publish a lot of things, but it's very hard to have your research impact patients. That's what I yearn for."
As a physician-scientist, Clausen says people are worried he'll be forced to choose between medicine and science, but he is confident he'll be able to find a balance.
"I want to be in the clinic. I want to be there for patients while doing research that can directly impact them and their disease," he said. That's what I want to do going forward. Eventually, my goal is to become an oncologist who can do research that directly impacts the clinic."
Read Clausen's full study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation here.