For Devin Ruppe ’26, the future of cancer treatment isn’t just theoretical — it’s personal.
Ruppe is spending the summer at Emory University in Atlanta, where he’s conducting research on a protein that could be used to treat triple negative breast cancer, the same aggressive disease that took his grandmother’s life at the age of 45.
“She had a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation treatment, but nothing in her three-year fight was enough to stop the cancer metastasizing to her lungs,” says Ruppe, who also lost an aunt to breast cancer.
“I’ve always wished I could have done something to help them,” he says. “Now I’m proud to say that I've had the opportunity to make a difference.”
Ruppe’s research is supported by the Gus and Maria Papadopoulos Endowed Scholarship, which provides internship opportunities for students with a strong interest in cutting edge research at the institution of their choice.
Ruppe, a mathematics, chemistry and physics triple major with concentrations in biochemistry, data science and medical physics, is working in the Ortlund Lab at Emory’s biochemistry department, where researchers are targeting liver receptor homolog-1, or LRH-1, as a potential therapy for triple negative breast cancer.
“LRH-1 is an incredible protein with incredible capacities. What we’re doing is testing its binding and activation properties so that we can turn it all the way off and hopefully sequester and stop any cancer cell proliferation,” says Ruppe, who’s from Gaffney, South Carolina.
About 10 to 15 percent of breast cancer diagnoses are triple negative, meaning cancer cells lack the three receptors — estrogen, progesterone and a growth factor called HER2 — that hormone therapies target.
That makes the disease notoriously hard to treat. It also spreads faster, is more likely to recur and often isn’t diagnosed until the cancer has already metastasized.
“It’s essentially a death sentence,” Ruppe says. “There’s not much that a doctor today can do about it, so our method of targeting the LRH-1 may be one of the only effective treatments for this cancer.”
Ruppe gained valuable lab skills last summer when he collaborated with Dr. Lee Cato, visiting professor of biology at Wofford, to study macromolecular mechanisms in algae.
“The work that I did with Dr. Cato was instrumental in prepping me for this experience at Emory,” he says. “It was still a big jump for me. I’ve had many successes and failures, but if it hadn’t been for that first preliminary exposure at Wofford, I wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
Ruppe, who’s chronicling his experience on Instagram at @devs_research_chronicles, is one of three Wofford students who received the Papadopoulos Scholarship to conduct STEM research this summer.
Nathan Hopkins ’26, a biology major from Simpsonville, South Carolina, is working on data filtration and clinical research subject recruitment at the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee. Lydia Lupo ’26, a psychology and Spanish double major from Greenville, South Carolina, is assisting in a study at the Medical University of South Carolina to improve support for children with behavioral disorders in underserved communities.
Maria and Dr. Gus Papadopoulos ’54 established the Papadopoulos Scholar endowment in 2007. The late Gus Papadopoulos was a longtime member of the Board of Trustees and the first Wofford graduate to donate over $1 million to the college. They also made other major gifts to the Neofytos D. Papadopoulos Building and the Roger Milliken Science Center and gave each year to the Annual Fund (now the Wofford Fund).