Designed to identify, retain and further the careers of talented young investigators. Provides funds directly to scientists developing their own independent laboratory research projects. These grants enable talented young scientists to establish their laboratories and gain a competitive edge necessary to earn additional funding from other sources. The V Scholars determine how to best use the funds in their research projects. The grants are $200,000, two-year commitments.
Radiation therapy is used to treat many patients with cancer. Doctors can aim radiation at a tumor precisely. But radiation alone often cannot get rid of all the cancer, especially if it has spread. Immunotherapy is another type of cancer treatment. It uses the body’s own immune system to fight the disease. This strategy can work very well. However, it can also cause side effects. This happens when the immune system attacks healthy tissues. Thus, current immune treatments could benefit from improved precision against cancer cells. Our research combines the strengths of radiation and immunotherapy. Radiation is normally used to kill cancer cells. However, we will use radiation in a new way. Our approach is designed to improve how immune cells respond within tumors while limiting effects in other parts of the body. This may help protect healthy tissues. In this project, we will find ways to make immune cells perform better after radiation. We will find genes that help the immune cells grow, survive and kill cancer cells. We will also test ways to send supportive signals directly into tumors instead of the whole body. If we succeed, we establish a new type of cancer treatment. Patients could benefit from immune therapy that is more precise and powerful, with fewer side effects.
Glioblastoma is the most common and deadly type of brain cancer in adults. Even with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, the cancer almost always comes back. One reason is that tumor cells can spread into nearby brain tissue, making them very hard to remove completely. Our research focuses on how brain tumors take control of nearby healthy brain cells called “astrocytes”. These healthy cells normally help the brain work properly, but cancer cells can transform them into helpers that support tumor growth and spread. We want to understand how this happens and find ways to stop it.We believe brain tumors send signals that change the behavior of nearby cells and create an environment that helps the cancer grow. In this project, we will study these signals and test new ways to block them.This research could lead to new treatments that make it harder for brain tumors to spread and return after treatment. By targeting the support system that tumors build around themselves, we hope to improve the effectiveness of current therapies and help people with glioblastoma live longer and healthier lives.The knowledge gained from this work may also help researchers better understand how other cancers interact with healthy tissues and find new ways to stop cancer progression.
Cancer can train the immune system to look away. In many solid tumors, such as pancreatic cancer and melanoma, “killer” T cells enter the tumor but become tired and stop attacking. This project studies why that happens by focusing on the outside surface of T cells, called the membrane.The membrane is like a control panel made of fats and proteins. When this panel is well organized, signals gather in the right spots, helping a T cell grab a cancer cell and destroy it. In the harsh setting inside a tumor, this surface may become too loose or mixed up. Then the T cell may not get a strong “attack” message.We will study T cells from tumors to learn how their surface changes as they lose strength. We will also search for the cell programs that help T cells keep a healthier surface under stress. Finally, we will use these lessons to design stronger immune cell treatments. Some of these treatments could be made ahead of time and used for many patients, which may improve access and lower costs.This work matters because many people with solid tumors do not benefit long from current immunotherapy. By learning how to keep cancer-fighting immune cells strong, this research could lead to better tests of T cell health and new treatments that work longer and help more people with cancer.
Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic cancer in the United States, and deaths from this disease are rising. Some types of endometrial cancer are very aggressive. These cancers grow quickly, spread, and are harder to treat.Our research studies a gene called MECOM. This gene is found more often in some aggressive endometrial cancers. It may help these cancers grow and survive treatment. Studies show that tumors with changes in MECOM are more likely to come back after treatment and are linked to worse outcomes. This means MECOM may play a role in differences in cancer outcomes. Scientists still do not fully understand how MECOM helps cancer cells grow and survive.In this project, we will study how MECOM affects cancer cells and whether cancer cells need it to survive. We will study patient tumors and test new treatment ideas. Our goal is to find better treatment options for people with aggressive endometrial cancer. We hope this work will lead to better treatments and better outcomes for all patients affected by this disease.
Lung cancer affects thousands of people in the United States each year and is the leading cause of death from cancer. We focus on the type of lung cancer most commonly found in young adults and those who do not smoke. Unfortunately, current medicines to treat these lung cancers do not work for all people or they stop working after a while. The goal of our research is to find new and safer ways to treat difficult lung cancers. Most current medicines work by turning off the molecule in a person’s body that causes the cancer. The new kind of medicine we are studying destroys the cancer-causing molecule instead of just turning it off. Removing the molecule means the cancer cannot survive and could cure patients. We want to learn if using two medicines at the same time will be better at destroying the cancer-causing molecule. We will do this by searching for new drugs and testing them in combinations to see if they stop cancer from growing better than the medicines patients currently take. The new drugs we hope to make will lead to new treatments that work better and are safer for patients. This means thousands of more people will survive each year and taking the medicine will not make patients as sick. The drugs we hope to make will work differently than current drugs and can be used to treat patients that can’t be treated with the medicines we have right now.
Immunotherapy has changed how we treat cancer. It helps the immune system find and kill cancer cells. But only some patients benefit. In many cases, tumors contain cells that weaken the immune response and protect the cancer. One important group of these cells is called myeloid cells. They are made in the bone marrow, the soft tissue inside our bones. From there, they travel through the blood to tumors. Once in the tumor, they can stop the immune system from doing its job. Our recent work shows that these harmful cells may be shaped very early, while they are still developing in the bone marrow. We discovered that a rare cell called a basophil plays a key role. Basophils send out signals that guide how myeloid cells develop. In cancer, basophils become active and produce signals that lead to more immune-suppressing cells.Basophils have not been well studied in cancer. We do not yet know what turns them on or how they control other immune cells.Our goal is to answer these questions. First, we will identify the signals basophils release that promote immune suppression. Second, we will learn what activates basophils during cancer. By targeting these early steps in the bone marrow, we hope to create new treatments that help more patients respond to immunotherapy.
Funded with support from Calhoun Associates Abeloff V Scholar * (Tie for Top Rank)
Acute myeloid leukemia is an aggressive blood cancer. It affects thousands of people every year and often returns even after the newest targeted drugs. We have learned that, instead of dying, some cancer cells can “change their identity” to become a new blood cell type. These cells are called monocytes and they are able to escape therapy. This switch is like a costume change in a play: when the spotlight of treatment is on them, cancer cells put on a monocyte costume to hide. Later, when treatment eases, they can take off the disguise and return as cancer cells. We will test if these monocytes can turn back into cancer cells and cause disease to come back. We want to know how these cell changes happen and what helps them survive therapy. To answer these questions, we use new models that mimic patients’ cancer. We track how cancer cells looking at cell identity and genetic mutations. We also test new ways to block survival strategies, such as stopping the cells from becoming monocytes, in hopes of making current treatments work better and longer. By understanding and blocking the ways cancer escapes treatment, our goal is to develop strategies that keep patients in remission and improve survival.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers. A condition called pancreatitis, which is prolonged inflammation of the pancreas, increases the risk of getting this cancer. For over 100 years, scientists have known that both pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer involve many nerves. But only recently have we started to learn that these nerves may actively cause pain, increase inflammation, and help cancer grow through direct interactions with cancer cells but also indirect effects on the immune system. However, we still do not fully understand how this works, and there are no treatments yet that target these harmful nerve-cancer interactions.Our research focuses on a type of nerve cell called a nociceptor. These nerves sense pain and use a protein called Nav1.8 to send signals. A new drug that blocks Nav1.8 was recently shown to be safe and helpful in reducing pain after surgery. In our project, we will test whether blocking Nav1.8 can also reduce pancreatic inflammation and slow cancer growth. We will also study how damaged nerves affect the immune system. Our early data suggests that injured nerves can change certain immune cells called macrophages, causing them to block T cells from attacking the tumor. Our overarching goal is to find new ways to prevent and treat pancreatic cancer by targeting the nerves that drive pain and disease. We hope these treatments will ease pain, stop cancer from forming or growing, and help patients live longer.
Sarcomas are very rare types of cancer that develop from soft tissues- things like muscle, fat, and bone. Because they are so rare, they are often not caught early and have spread to other parts of the body by the time they are diagnosed. Once this happens, they can be very hard to treat. Our existing drugs often do not work very well to shrink or eliminate the cancer. My lab is working to develop new treatments for sarcoma, focused on targeting the nutrients these tumors need to grow and spread. Fast-growing tumors like sarcomas require more, and often different, nutrients than the normal tissues around them. This allows us to use drugs that target these pathways to slow down or shrink tumors while minimizing side effects to healthy tissue. We are able to measure how nutrients are used in patient tumors and using these findings to help refine treatment strategies. We have shown that sarcomas seem to rely heavily on certain nutrients- such as the amino acid glutamine, an important building block for many important cell functions. We are studying how new drugs that block the ability of cancer cells to use glutamine can be used to treat sarcoma. The goal of this work is to develop new treatments to help improve the lives of patients with sarcoma.
The immune system protects us from infections, but it also plays an important role in fighting cancer. While many cancer treatments now focus on using the immune system to attack tumors, these treatments don’t work for everyone. To improve these therapies, we need to better understand how different immune cells behave inside tumors. Our research program focuses on a specific type of immune cell called the B cell. B cells are best known for making antibodies, but recently it was discovered that they are also found inside many types of tumors. Some B cells seem to help the body fight cancer, while others may actually help cancer grow. Right now, we don’t fully understand which B cells do what, or how. Our project will track how B cells enter tumors and how the tumor environment changes their behavior. We will use advanced tools in mice to follow B cells over time and test how certain stress signals, like low oxygen or changes in nutrients, affect how B cells grow and function. This work aims to discover better ways to boost the helpful B cells and block the harmful ones. By learning how to control these B cells, we hope to make immune-based cancer treatments work better for more people. Our ultimate goal is to use the immune system more effectively to help patients survive and thrive after a cancer diagnosis.
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