{"id":5027,"date":"2026-05-13T15:09:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/?post_type=profiles&#038;p=5027"},"modified":"2026-08-10T11:38:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T15:38:22","slug":"alanna-boller","status":"publish","type":"profiles","link":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/profiles\/alanna-boller\/","title":{"rendered":"Alanna Boller"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"599\" src=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Boller-Alanna.jpg\" alt=\"by Corban Swain\" class=\"wp-image-5580\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1;object-fit:cover;width:204px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Boller-Alanna.jpg 400w, https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Boller-Alanna-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Georgia State University<br>Faculty Advisor: Prof. Matthew Vander Heiden<br>Research Surpervisor: Patrick Cunniff<br>Department: Physics<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:0px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Biography<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alanna Boller is a rising sophomore at the Georgia Institute of Technology, majoring in<br>Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. As an aspiring researcher, she hopes to contribute<br>to breakthroughs made in human and translational research or plant bioengineering research.<br>Alanna wants to help ensure that all newfound information, technology, and medicine is<br>accessible to all. Her research would be done to help everyone in the world despite economic or<br>geographical limitations. She is planning on attaining her Ph.D. in Bioengineering and working<br>in academia. This summer, Alanna worked in the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research<br>under Dr. Patrick Cunniff in the Vander Heiden Lab. Her project focused on understanding<br>the level of cancer-relevant replication stress-induced gene expression changes in Caco2 and<br>LS180 cell lines by analyzing changes when exposed to chronic and acute doses of hydroxyurea.<br>Beyond research, Alanna enjoys reading, eating new foods, and being outdoors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><br><strong>Replication Stress Induced Gene-Expression Changes in Cancer-Relevant<br>Cell Lines<\/strong><br>Alanna Boller1, Patrick Cunniff2, Matthew Vander Heiden2<br>1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology<br>2Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>Cells require an adequate amount of nucleotides in their environment in order to proliferate.<br>Previous studies have revealed that depleting a cell of nucleotides induces a state of replication<br>stress, which can cause a cell to activate silent genes. Cancer cells are susceptible to replication<br>stress because of inherent limiting microenvironmental factors and mutations in their genes.<br>Replication stress may endow cancer cells the ability to change their gene expression and<br>trajectory to promote metastasis and proliferation. However, the frequency of tumorigenic<br>cells responding to replication stress is unclear. By inducing acute or chronic replication stress,<br>my project aims to assess whether intensity or duration of replication stress is more critical<br>for gene expression changes. I use hydroxyurea, which inhibits deoxynucleotides, to induce<br>replication stress in two colorectal cancer cell lines. I then identify proteins that indicate geneexpression<br>changes, including secretarial lineage proteins. I compare activation of silent genes<br>by observing the different levels of RNA and protein expression under acute and chronic<br>replication stress. I also establish CRISPR knock-in cells in order to quantify replication-stressinduced<br>gene-expression changes. Cancer cells that have activated silent genes can accumulate<br>secretory features that enable them to create their own metastatic niche.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5392,"template":"","profile_category":[25],"class_list":["post-5027","profiles","type-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","profile_category-2026-interns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profiles"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5679,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5027\/revisions\/5679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"profile_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_category?post=5027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}