Shelly R. Peyton is an American chemist who is the Armstrong Professional Development Professor at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

. Her research considers the development of biomaterials to investigate metastatic cancer and potential new therapies.

Early life and education

Peyton was an undergraduate student at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Chart ...

, where she majored in chemical engineering. She was a member of the

ultimate frisbee Ultimate, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is a non-contact team sport played with a frisbee flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by AJ Gator in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate resembles many traditional sports in its ath ...

team. Peyton moved to the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

, where she worked on tissue engineering for the cardiovascular system in the research group of Andy Putnam. Peyton moved to the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

where she was appointed a

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U ...

Ruth L. Kirschstein Ruth Lillian Kirschstein (12 October 1926 – 6 October 2009) was an American pathologist and science administrator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Kirschstein served as director of the National Institute of General Medical Scienc ...

Postdoctoral Fellow. At MIT, Peyton was trained in

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of ...

biology by Linda Griffith. Together they investigated

mesenchymal stem cell Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) also known as mesenchymal stromal cells or medicinal signaling cells are multipotent stromal cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types, including osteoblasts (bone cells), chondrocytes (cartilage ...

migration.

Research and career

In 2011, Peyton joined the

, where she established a research program in the design and application of biomaterials. She was made the Barry and Afsaneh Siadat Career Development Fellow in 2012. Peyton investigated the fundamental mechanisms that underpin

metastasis Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

through the engineering of carefully controlled environments. The series of events includes crosstalk between stem cells and tumours, the mobilization of stem cells, the reassembly of pre-metastatic tissue and the movement of circulating stem cells to tissue sites. In particular, Peyton is interested in the role of stem cells in the metastatic spread of

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or ...

. She argued that the stem cells remodel the target organ, altering the mechanical properties of the organ before the cancer cells attack. The controlled environments created by Peyton mimic human organs, allowing Peyton to study how cancer cells embedded in these artificial tissues respond to different forms of

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothe ...

. Specifically, the three-dimensional tumour spheroids allow Peyton to precisely control and study the response of biological tissue to cancer cells and therapies. Peyton worked with Sandra Petersen to develop the Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP), a $1.7 million

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

program that looks to improve diversity in the biomedical workforce. In particular, PREP provides funding to doctoral students from historically marginalized groups.

Awards and honors

* 2013

New Innovator Award * 2013 Pew Biomedical Scholar * 2015 Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Young Innovator Award * 2015

National Science Foundation CAREER Award The National Science Foundation CAREER awards, presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF), are in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through research and education, and the integration of these endeavors i ...

* 2018

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

Mellichamp Lecture

Selected publications

* * *

Personal life

Peyton married her wife in 2016. Peyton is involved with various initiatives to support LGBTQIA+ researchers at the

and Biomedical Engineering Society, and was encouraged to do so by Naomi Chesler.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peyton, Shelly R. Living people Year of birth missing (living people) LGBT scientists from the United States University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Northwestern University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology people University of California, Irvine alumni Biomedical engineers