Portraits of Impact

Dr. Nikki Delk, associate professor of biological sciences and fellow, Cecil H. and Ida Green Professor in Systems Biology Science, has worked at The University of Texas at Dallas for 10 years. After serving four years in the United States Air Force as a program officer at the Air Force Research Lab overseeing biotech company contracts and then training as a postdoctoral and faculty fellow at MD Anderson and Rice University in Houston, she was ready to become principal investigator of her own lab. She chose UTD for its dedication to growth and student-oriented focus.

“I came here at a time where the previous president had a strategic initiative to grow the University, the endowment, the faculty and the research,” Delk said. “I knew I wanted to be a part of that. In the decade I have been here, we’ve met those goals.”

UTD was designated as a Carnegie Tier One university in 2016. At the time of its designation, it was the youngest institution in Texas to be recognized as a national research university.

Delk leads the Delk Lab at UT Dallas. She, along with more than 20 current students and a research fellow, studies the effects inflammation can have on cancer cells.

“When you wound yourself, your immune system will immediately try to heal the damage done, and part of that healing process includes inflammation,” Delk said. “Cancerous tumors are foreign masses, so the body recognizes it as a wound. We often refer to tumors as wounds that do not heal, because instead of a normal immune response, the cancer cells take advantage of our immune system to promote the growth of the tumor and its progression. That’s why, unfortunately, inflammation can exacerbate cancer cells and promote tumor progression.”

Delk and her students examine an inflammatory protein called interleukin-1, which is commonly used by our immune system, but can also cause cancer cells to metastasize or become resistant to treatment.

“We’re looking at what’s happening inside the cancer cell.   We want to know what genes are being regulated and what metabolic processes might be affected in the cell in response to interleukin-1,” she said.

Their research can help with drug design and ultimately assist in identifying patient response to various therapies based on how their cancer cells behave.

Delk’s dedication to this research and her students’ involvement in the process earned her an appointment to the Cecil H. and Ida Green Professor in Systems Biology in 2018.

“It’s not just a cool title, as there is funding that comes along with it to aid our research,” Delk said. “Having those funds available has tremendously pushed our research goals and projects forward.”

One of the Delk Lab’s ongoing STEM outreach efforts in partnership with Dr. Delk’s Arts for Science initiative is to bring high school students from groups historically underrepresented in STEM into the lab for a summer research experience. In addition to mentoring and training students, the Delk Lab looks forward to publishing more of their work and pursuing additional funding to support the lab’s research. .

“It’s important to fund academic research for a lot of reasons. Importantly it allows us to train our next generation of STEM and medical professional,” Delk said. “At this point in my career at UTD, I’ve had over 100 people train in the Delk Lab, including high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. These folks are getting research experience and then heading off to become medical professionals, teachers and scientists. I am extremely proud of all of the students that I have had the privilege to witness their professional success.”

To support the Delk Lab, visit giving.utdallas.edu/delklab.

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