Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Biology

Reader 1

Yun Rose Li MD-PhD

Reader 2

Kyle Jay PhD

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2026 Pranav V Patel

Abstract

Odorant receptors (ORs) are G-protein coupled receptors that play an important role in smell by binding to volatile chemical compounds known as odorants. Recently, these receptors have been shown to be expressed in non-nasal areas, known as ectopic ORs. Advances in multi-omics have revealed ectopic expression of odorant receptors in various cancers including prostate, breast, colon, and liver. The function of these odorant receptors in most cancers remains relatively unknown and understudied, two examples being prostate cancer (PCa) and small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). This knowledge gap is further widened by the diverse molecular subtypes found in these cancers; in PCa, molecular subtypes range from castration-sensitive to neuroendocrine, while in SCLC, ASCL1-types to YAP1-types. This analysis leverages scRNA-sequencing data to explore the ectopic expression of odorant receptors OR51E1 and OR51E2 in molecular subtypes of PCa and SCLC. We find that OR expression peaks in castration-sensitive PCa and ASCL1-type SCLC with trajectory analysis showing peaks of expression occurring during neuroendocrine activation across both cancers.

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