viruses may – A cancer researcher at Tufts University is exploring how viral infections—often dismissed as “just a cold”—may change the body’s extracellular “soil,” potentially helping cancer cells take hold. The work ties together viruses, fibrosis, and long-term changes a
For many people, getting sick means a familiar countdown: rest, ride out the symptoms, wait it out. But in a Tufts University lab, a different question keeps coming back—what if that countdown isn’t just for the virus itself?
Jaye Gardiner. an assistant professor of biology at Tufts University. studies how viruses and cancer can interact in ways that don’t look obvious on the surface. In her view, up to 20 percent of all cancers are caused by viruses. She points to familiar examples: human papillomavirus (HPV). which can cause cervical cancer as well as head and neck cancers. penile or anal cancers; hepatitis viruses B and C that can cause liver cancer; and viruses that can cause lymphomas or leukemias.
Her work zeroes in on a particular lever in cancer biology: the cell cycle—what allows malignant cells to divide endlessly. But Gardiner’s twist is where she thinks the story starts. Rather than treating infection and cancer as separate problems. she frames cancer as a two-part process: the tumor cell as “seed. ” and the surrounding microenvironment as the “soil.”.
When the body is healthy, Gardiner says that soil is “very dry and arid,” preventing that seed from taking hold. The question for her lab is what happens when viral infections make the environment richer—more fertile for growth whenever the opportunity appears. “If you use an analogy like the seed and soil. ” she explains. “so your tumor cell is the seed. the microenvironment is the soil that can either nourish it or keep it at bay.”.
That microenvironment—made of noncellular components—centers on what Gardiner studies most directly: the extracellular matrix. She describes it as the noncellular scaffolding of tissues, built from molecules that form fibers and networks. Collagen and hyaluronic acid are examples of extracellular matrix components.
Gardiner also links the extracellular matrix to outcomes people notice in everyday life: healing and scarring. If you cut your hand, the goal is closure without a scar. But she says scarring is an accumulation of extracellular matrix. where fibroblasts remain active too long and secrete extracellular matrix for longer than they should.
The consequences can go far beyond skin. For fibrosis—using the lung as an example—deposited extracellular matrix can make tissue difficult to expand and contract. which she says can prevent organs from functioning normally. “If you have scar tissue there… now that organ can’t function normally. ” she says. describing the problem as rigid and hard to move.
This is where viruses enter her framework in a more consequential way. Gardiner said her lab is focused on coxsackievirus, specifically clade B. She contrasts it with clade A. noting that clade A coxsackievirus can cause hand. foot and mouth disease—something “very common among children.” Clade B is different: most people infected with it experience something like a common cold and can’t easily tell it apart from other cold-causing viruses.
Her interest in clade B is partly driven by studies showing that even though it’s treated as a respiratory virus—primarily associated with the lungs—it can also infect the pancreas. For coxsackievirus B3. Gardiner says it can lead to both acute (short-time) and chronic (long-time) forms of fibrosis in the pancreas.
And fibrosis, in her telling, is a setup. “Fibrosis is a predisposition for any type of cancer,” she said. The logic is stark: a virus that can produce long-term changes in an organ may already be preparing the soil for cancer when it arrives.
That framing expands the scope of what Gardiner thinks should count as “cause” in cancer risk. She argues that the way people talk about common colds—suck it up. stay home for 10 to 12 days. maybe a week for the fastest recoveries—doesn’t capture what might be happening elsewhere in the body. She emphasizes that viral infections don’t just trigger immune responses where the virus first appears.
If a respiratory virus spreads effects beyond the lungs. Gardiner says researchers may not be asking enough about the rest of the body. For coxsackievirus, she says it’s already known it can spread to the pancreas. But she also points to the unknown: whether more viruses do similar things. and whether they can contribute to cancer without directly causing the mutations that allow cells to grow.
Gardiner makes the parallel to postviral syndromes through long COVID. She describes COVID as a “really good example” of how a virus that primarily impacts the lungs can still produce symptoms throughout the body. recalling examples ranging from migraine in the brain to the “COVID toe. ” when people’s toes turned red.
With long COVID. she says. research has more work to do to understand what sustains symptoms even after the viral infection has been cleared. In her view. that lingering response may involve the kind of environment-based effects she’s studying—what she calls a “viral microenvironment. ” not just a tumor microenvironment.
This week’s research focus shows up in what her lab plans to do next. “Hopefully. this summer we’ll start… trying to understand a little bit more of how these fibroblasts are staying persistently on. ” she said. She also plans experiments with coxsackieviruses. asking whether they can infect fibroblasts and. if they can. how the viruses alter the extracellular matrix those fibroblasts secrete.
Looking farther ahead. Gardiner’s longer-term goal is to follow the “virus side of things” while continuing to explore the intersections between virology and the extracellular matrix—especially as it relates to cancer. She also points back to her own training. During her Ph.D., she worked on HIV, a virus she says is now controlled with effective treatments. People who take those treatments can live long, full lives with the virus “undetected.”.
But she highlights a complication: individuals living with HIV have a higher incidence of cancer. not because the virus itself is spreading through the body. The question she wants to tackle is whether antiviral drugs are changing the environment in ways that could still allow a cancer-driving mutation to take off.
Gardiner’s interests aren’t confined to the lab bench. She also talks about comics—something she clearly treats with real enthusiasm. She says she originally wanted to go to college for illustration but chose science after high school teachers made it feel “so much fun.” During her Ph.D. she and two friends—Kelly Montgomery and Khoa Tran—started a group called JKX Comics: “J for my name. Jaye. K for Kelly and Khoa and X like a variable.”.
The idea, she said, is to let scientists who don’t do art have their science represented, and artists who don’t do the science collaborate in the other direction. Their goal is to show how “cool science is,” breaking it out from paywalls and making the language more accessible.
She connects it to the reality of modern research publishing: information in subscription journals and pay-to-publish systems can be hard for people outside research to access. and even for those who try. the language can be inaccessible. Comics. she says. can make science more memorable while also showing the people behind the work—“not just someone who looks like Albert Einstein in a basement yelling. ‘Eureka!’”.
She also describes how the projects work. Comics can be done at multiple levels, including following a scientist across a project and arc. Her biggest project to date is called Gaining STEAM!. which follows about seven different scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the research they’re doing across disciplines.
For one component she illustrated, she followed Edna Chiang, who studies the thirteen-lined ground squirrel and how it survives hibernation. Gardiner frames the medical relevance by asking why such knowledge matters—how organisms can put themselves to sleep and then come back awake without eating for extended periods—and she says it can be applied for space travel or medically induced comas.
Gardiner’s discussion closes with the show’s wider invitation: for more on the inaugural winners of the Young American Scientist Awards. viewers can check the latest print issue of Scientific American. or visit ScientificAmerican.com for details. Video profiles of the winners are also available on the show’s YouTube channel.
Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. The episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with Marielle Issa and Aaron Shattuck fact-checking. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. The show was produced as part of “The Young American Scientists. ” an editorially independent project produced with financial support from Regeneron.
Jaye Gardiner Tufts University extracellular matrix cancer risk coxsackievirus clade B fibrosis pancreas long COVID postviral syndromes viral microenvironment JKX Comics