Cheryl Lyn Walker, PhD, ATS, is the recipient of the 2016 SOT Leading Edge in Basic Science Award. Dr. Walker currently serves as endowed chair from the Robert E. Welch Foundation and is a professor and director of the Institute of Biosciences and Technology at the Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
Cheryl Lyn Walker Receives 2016 SOT Leading Edge in Basic Science Award
Having made many contributions to our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of carcinogenesis, Dr. Walker has made significant impacts in two fields. She has advanced the field of environmental epigenomics and cancer, revealing the mechanisms by which an epigenome can be reprogrammed by environmental exposures to increase risk of cancer. Furthermore, she has made seminal contributions to renal carcinogenesis and novel pathways and mechanisms triggered in cells by both endogenous and exogenous sources of reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species (ROS and RNS, respectively).
In the area of environmental epigenomics, Dr. Walker is a leader in developmental reprogramming, seeking to shed light on mechanisms by which environmental exposures early in life reprogram the epigenome to increase an adult’s susceptibility to disease, such as cancer or obesity. In recent studies investigating the mechanisms by which xenoestrogens induce this reprogramming, she identified the first direct pathway by which early life exposures can disrupt the cells epigenetics. These disruptions leave marks that can be used as biomarkers of early life exposure and/or future risk of disease. These alterations might be reversible in the future by interventions that modulate environmentally induced epigenetic changes.
Dr. Walker more recently made the novel discovery of a new signaling pathway in cells that involves the ATM and TSC2 tumor suppressors, which surprisingly, localize to the peroxisome, where they function as redox sensors that regulate peroxisome turnover and redox homeostasis. Her group was the first to report that ATM “moonlights” in the cytoplasm, where it activates TSC2 in response to reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS). In recent publications, Dr. Walker has answered two questions: how peroxisome number is regulated by cells, and how peroxisomes are cleared following treatment with PPAR-agonists such as clofibrate. Her group was the first to discover that ATM is a resident at the peroxisome, and that peroxisome turnover is triggered when ATM is activated by peroxisomal ROS.
An active member of the Society since 1989, Dr. Walker has served on the SOT Finance, Membership, Nominating, and Scientific Program Committees. She has been a member of SOT Council and served as SOT 2009−2010 President.