Eryn K Matich, PhD

Research Program: Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences Faculty Rank: Instructor Campus: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College: College of Public Health Department: Environmental Health Sciences

Cancer Research Interest

• Disease Site Focus: GI, Prostate, Breast
• Research Focus Area: Prevention, Health Disparities, Detection, Diagnosis/ Prognosis
• Type of Research: Population Sciences, Basic
• Research Keywords: metabolomics, mass spectrometry, LC-MS, public health
• Research Interest Statement: I am personally interested in the biological factors behind the development and metabolism of Colorectal Cancer (CRC) because my mother was diagnosed with stage IV CRC in July 2012 at age 56 and died eight months later in March 2013. My mother was not a healthy individual in that she did not eat well and later in life did not engage in much physical activity and to make matters worse she also did not begin CRC screening at age 50 as is suggested. CRC is a mostly preventable disease with proper and routine screening and a healthy diet and lifestyle, and therefore following my mother’s death, I began to do my own research on factors that may increase my risk of developing CRC and what I could do to prevent this. Since then, I have decided to improve my own dietary habits, along with continuing a high level of physical activity in order to reduce my risk. Because of this life event, I would like to join the vast group of research scientists who are focusing on studying this disease to improve our understanding and to work to decrease the incidence and mortality of this disease. Overall, I am interested in the analysis of the effect of growth treatments and environmental conditions on the metabolites produced by living organisms using mass spectrometry. My previous work had focused on the analysis of the metabolites, lipids, peptides, and sugar derivatives altered in plants, bacteria, fish, and human red blood cells. My collaborators and I have been able to successfully determine the metabolites affected by these treatments and varied conditions. In microalgae, those metabolites were triacylglycerols, chlorophylls, phosphatidylglycerols, and other lipids and in fish, we were able to detect two vitellogenin biomarkers of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that were common among four different fish species. The results provide conditions that improve the biofuel production of microalgae, biomarkers of EDCs in fish, the effect of gene mutations and exposure to an antibiotic on the lipids produced by a bacterium, and how the nicotine metabolites are affected by how people smoke cigarettes and other tobacco products. My pre-doctoral research focused on cultivating and strengthening my skills in using high-resolution mass spectrometry and untargeted metabolomic analysis to study the effect of varying nutrient concentration and length of time on the growth and lipid production in the microalgal species, Ettlia oleoabundans. I performed my pre-doctoral research (2013-2018) in the fields of analytical chemistry using mass spectrometry and metabolomics analysis at the University at Buffalo (UB) under the guidance of Dr. G. Ekin Atilla-Gokcumen. My research was highly influenced by interactive collaborations with the laboratories of Drs. Berat Haznedaroglu, Blaine Pfeifer, and Diana Aga (co-authorship in Algal Res and BMC Biotechnol Biofuels). I was funded for a portion of my pre-doctoral research by the National Science Foundation (1438172). The focus of my work was first to develop a method for the extraction of metabolites from microalgae and the analysis of these metabolites by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (HPLC-QToF MS). Then, I applied the method to analyze the microalgae grown under different nutrient concentrations and time periods to determine the effect of the lipids and other metabolites. The untargeted results were then analyzed based on statistical analysis (p<0.05) and fold change (FC>2), and we were able to determine the lipids and metabolites that were significantly affected by the growth treatments. Another focus of my research while I pursued my Ph.D. (2013-2018) was studying the effect of endocrine disruptor chemical exposure (Estrogen) on the vitellogenin peptides produced by male fish using untargeted analysis via high-resolution mass spectrometry. Results from this study demonstrate the potential of LC-MS/MS as an effective cross-species method to detect VTG in fish, which can be an alternative analytical technique for assessing endocrine disruption in multiple fish species. A collaborative research project performed during my pre-doctoral research was studying the effect of the treatment of O-NAP and S-NAP on the glycan derivatives produced by human red blood cells using untargeted analysis via high-resolution mass spectrometry. From this research, we found that thioglycosides represent a class of potent metabolic decoys that resist hydrolysis and block E-selectin-dependent leukocyte adhesion in models of inflammation. I was recently a Post-Doctoral Fellow and began working for my PI, Dr. Hsu, at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in August 2018. My post-doctoral research was focused on behavioral and environmental exposures associated with colorectal cancer risk and detecting and quantifying these exposures through metabolomic analysis. I am the PI of an Arkansas Center for Health Disparities (ARCHD), National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities pilot grant performing this type of analysis with respect to race, food security, and diet. I was also recommended as an alternate for funding through the Department of Defense (DoD) Prostate Cancer Research Project (PCRP) Early Investigator Research Award to study the association between diet, metabolomics, microbiome, and prostate cancer and prostatitis. I have also been a co-investigator on grant-funded projects related to (1) smoke exposure from cigarettes and nicotine metabolites in saliva (ARCHD), (2) e-cigarette use and topographical puff data as well as metabolome data on plasma samples, (3) effect of chemotherapy on the biomarkers in plasma (NIGMS), and (4) how cigarette smoking impacts prostate cancer as well as metabolomics and the microbiome (DoD PCRP Health Disparities Research Award). I am currently an Instructor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. I will begin teaching a section of Introduction to Public Health in Fall 2022. I am also developing and managing a small molecule liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry core lab as a part of the DNA Damage and Toxicology COBRE core. We currently have a working UPLC-Qtof, UPLC-PDa/QDa MS, and UPLC-TUV/single quad MS. We also plan to include a UPLC-QqQ in the near future. My research interests are still related to the metabolomic effect of environmental, occupational, and behavioral exposure including diet, chemotherapy, pesticide, and tobacco exposure on cancer risk and health outcomes.

Contact Information

• Email Address: EMATICH@UAMS.EDU
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Recent Publications

• Addicott MA, Sutfin EL, Reynolds LM, [et al., including Matich EK]. Biochemical validation of self-reported electronic nicotine delivery system and tobacco heaviness of use. Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology. 2022. PMID: 36107700. PMCID: PMC10184506.
• Su LJ, Young SG, Collins J, [et al., including Matich E]. Geospatial Assessment of Pesticide Concentration in Ambient Air and Colorectal Cancer Incidence in Arkansas, 2013-2017. International journal of environmental research and public health. 2022 19(6). PMID: 35328946. PMCID: PMC8951132.
• Matich EK, Laryea JA, Seely KA, [et al.]. Association between pesticide exposure and colorectal cancer risk and incidence: A systematic review. Ecotoxicology and environmental safety. 2021 219:112327. PMID: 34029839. PMCID: PMC8694176.