Sallie S. Schneider

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Research areas include cancer (breast, ovarian, melanoma), analysis of histological effects and toxicities of therapeutics, nutraceutical development and testing, primary tissue and cell culture, cell signaling, and cell therapy.

Current Research

My research group is primarily interested is in studying the signaling pathways that control abnormal development in the mammary gland and proteins/pathways that sensitize or target cancer cells to death. To this end my group focuses their studies in several areas 1) identification of earlier biomarkers for cancer risk or tumor development; 2) understanding the role of lifestyle choices and environmental exposures on gene expression and metabolic changes in the human breast; and 3) studying the impact of immune changes on cancer risk.

I am currently the Director of the Biospecimen Resource and Molecular Analysis Facility at the Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute. I have worked to collect a significant tissue resource of frozen and fixed normal breast tissue and I am currently re-directing some of my energies to create liaisons between researchers and surgeons to facilitate tissue collection for many types of research. I have used this resource for studying the role of Secreted Frizzled Related Protein family members in regulating cancer susceptibility in the breast as well as understanding pathways to human breast cancer susceptibility affected by parity, age and obesity. To date our research suggests that loss of SFRP1 is a critical early change that can identify women at high risk for developing proliferative lesions. Knock down and knock out studies have shown that loss of this protein makes cell resistant to apoptosis.

I have also used the human tissue bank to identify genetic, epigenetic and metabolic signatures associated with cancer risk factors in humans. I have been studying the inter-individual variation in responses to endocrine disrupting chemicals, such as oxybenzone. In particular we are interested in how it might prime the immune system to react in manners which might help the progression of cancer. Our data on parity in humans suggest that pregnancy may impart protection against cancer development through a stress-induced preconditioning which improves DNA repair as well as defense through immunological and anti-oxidative mechanisms.

Learn more at pvlsi.org/lab_schneider.php

Academic Background

BA Skidmore College 1986
PhD University of Massachusetts, 1995

Selected Publications

Gregory KJ, Roberts AL , BS; Conlon E, Mayfield JA, Hagen MJ Crisi GM, Bentley B, Kane JJ, Makari-Judson G, Mason HS, Yu J, Zhu LJ, Simin K, Khan A Schneider BR; Schneider SS, Jerry DJ. ”Gene expression signature of atypical breast hyperplasia and regulation by SFRP1” Breast Cancer Research (2019)

Reeves KW, Schneider SS, Xue J, Kannan K, Mason H, Cash S, Johnson M, Makari-Judson G, Jerry DJ, Santana M ” Bisphenol-A in Breast Adipose Tissue of Breast Cancer Cases and Controls.” Environmental Research 167:735-738 (2018)

Gregory KJ, Morin S Bentley B, Elsayad M, Crisi GM, and Schneider SS “The relationship between the calcium-sensing receptor and Secreted Frizzled Related Protein in the breast” Journal of Molecular Oncology Research 2(2): 27(2018)

Wong K, Mora MC, Sultana N, Moriarty KP, Arenas RB, Yadava N, Schneider SS, Tirabassi MV “Evaluation of Rhodiola crenulata on Growth and Metabolism of NB-1691, a MYCN Amplified Neuroblastoma Cell Line” Tumor Biology 40(6) (2018)

Gregory K, Morin S, Schneider SS “Regulation of early growth response 2 expression by secreted Frizzled Related Protein.” BMC Cancer 17(1):473 (2017)

Schneider SS, Henchey EM, Sultana N, Morin SM, Jerry DJ, Makari-Judson G, Crisi GM, Arenas RB, Johnson M, Mason HS, Yadava N “Individual-specific variation in the respiratory activities of HMECs and their bioenergetic response to IGF1 and TNFα.” Journal of Cellular Physiology 232(10):2750-2765 (2017)

Page SM, Henchey E, Chen X, Schneider SS and Emrick T (2014) ‘Efficacy of polyMPC-DOX prodrugs in 4T1 tumor-bearing mice’ Molecular Pharmaceutics 11(5):1715-20

Sturgeon SR, Arcaro KF, Johnson MA, Balsubramanian R, Zorn M, Jerry DJ and Schneider SS ‘DNA methylation in paired breast epithelial cells and white blood cells from women undergoing reduction mammoplasty’ Anticancer Research 34(6):2985-90

Gauger KJ, Bassa LM, Henchey EM, Wyman J, Ser-Dolansky J, Shimono A, and Schneider SS (2014)“The effects of diet induced obesity on breast cancer associated pathways in mice deficient SFRP1” Molecular Cancer 13:117

Rotunno M, Sun X, Figueroa J, Sherman M, Garcia-Closas M, Meltzer P, Williams T, Schneider SS, Jerry DJ, Yang XR, Troester MA (2014) ‘Parity-related molecular signatures and breast cancer subtypes by estrogen receptor status’ Breast Cancer Research 16(4)

Gauger KJ, Bassa LM, Henchey EM, Wyman J, Bentley B, Brown M, Shimono A, and Schneider SS (2013)“Mice Deficient in SFRP1 exhibit increased adiposity, deregulated glucose metabolism, and enhanced macrophage infiltration” PLoS One 8(12)

Gauger KJ and Schneider SS (2013) “Tumor suppressor Secreted Frizzled Related Protein 1 regulates p53-mediated apoptosis” Cell Biology International 38(1):124-30

Chen X, Parelkar S, Henchey E, Schneider SS, Emrick T, (2012) “PolyMPC-Doxorubicin Prodrugs” Bioconjugate Chemistry 23(9):1753-63

Gauger K, Shimono A, Crisi G, and Schneider SS (2012) “Loss of SFRP1 promotes ductal branching in the murine mammary gland” BMC Developmental Biology 12:25

McRae S, Chen X, Kratz K, Samanta D, Henchey E, Schneider SS and Emrick T (2012) “Pentafluorophenyl Ester Functionalized Phosphorylcholine Polymers: Preparation of Linear, Two-arm and Grafted Polymer-Protein Conjugates” Biomacromolecules 13(7):2099-109

Pirone JR, D’Arcy M, Stewart DA, Gould MN, Yaswen P, Jerry DJ, Schneider SS, Troester MA (2012) “Age-associated gene expression in normal breast tissue mirrors qualitative age-at-incidence patterns for breast cancer” Cancer Epidemiology Biomarker& Prevention 21(10):1735-44.

Sallie S. Schneider

Institute for Applied Life Sciences