V Scholar Archives - Page 2 of 60

Stefanie Bailey, PhD

Funded by the Bakewell Foundation

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat, with only about 1 in 10 patients living five years after diagnosis. New and more effective treatments are urgently needed. One promising option is CAR-T cell therapy, which uses a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer. While this treatment works well in blood cancers, it has not been successful in solid tumors like pancreatic cancer. One major challenge is the environment around the tumor, which lacks nutrients and weakens the immune system. This makes it hard for immune cells to survive and do their job. Our research aims to solve this problem by using a single target to improve both the immune cells and the tumor environment. We have found that changing how immune cells use energy can help them stay stronger and last longer in the body. At the same time, targeting how cancer cells grow makes the tumor more vulnerable to attack. By combining these two strategies, we hope to improve how well CAR-T cells work against pancreatic cancer. With support from the V Foundation, we will test this approach in models of pancreatic cancer. If successful, this work could lead to better treatment options for people with pancreatic cancer and potentially other hard-to-treat cancers as well.

Prerna Malaney, PhD

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is frequently diagnosed when it has already spread to other parts of the body. When caught early, 65% of patients survive for five years, but if the cancer has spread, only 12% survive that long. This makes it critical to understand what causes CRC to spread and find better ways to treat it. Cancer spreads when certain genes become more or less active. Scientists have mostly studied how genes are turned on and off, but recent research shows that another process, called post-transcriptional regulation, is also important. This refers to all the steps that happen between when a gene is copied into RNA to when it is turned into a protein. These steps, such as modifying, transporting, or breaking down RNA, add another layer of control over how much of a protein a cell makes. RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) help manage this process. But when RBPs don’t work properly, cancer cells may grow and spread more easily. We will use a genetic screening method to find all RBPs that play a role in cancer spread. By studying these proteins, we hope to better understand how CRC spreads and discover new ways to stop it.

Xin Gao, PhD

Myeloid cancers are a group of blood diseases that happen when blood-forming cells in the bone marrow become abnormal. These changes often come from genetic mutations. One important mutation occurs in a gene called ASXL1, which is linked to the development of blood cancers and associated with poor prognosis. However, it remains unclear how ASXL1 mutations could drive blood cancers in humans. We recently found that, in younger mice, ASXL1-mutant blood stem cells do not grow out of control. But in older mice, these mutated cells do grow and expand. These suggest that aged bone marrow environment (BMM) may help these abnormal cells grow and cause leukemia. We also found that in older mice, the bone marrow has more inflammation and a higher number of stromal cells (cells that support blood cell growth), which can be mitigated by anti-aging therapy. In this project, we will study how aged BMM helps these mutant cells grow and test if targeting the aged environment alters the development of blood cancers. By understanding this process, we hope to find new ways to treat or even prevent blood cancers in humans.

Alicia Darnell, PhD

Funded with support from Hockey Fights Cancer powered by the V Foundation presented by AstraZeneca

Cancer cells are always growing, and they need nutrients to keep up this fast growth. An exciting idea is that we might be able to starve cancer cells without harming healthy cells by getting rid of nutrients that cancer cells need. A drug being developed right now called ADI-PEG20 destroys a nutrient called arginine, which is an amino acid that is used to make protein and is particularly important for cancer cells. My lab studies what happens when cancer cells don’t have enough arginine. We want to understand how ADI-PEG20 works, how to improve it, and which cancers to treat with it. We have found that restricting arginine disrupts ribosomes, the machines that build new protein, causing them to get stuck and abandon their jobs early. We want to study three things to figure out how this impacts ADI-PEG20 treatment. First, why is protein production in cancer cells so sensitive to arginine levels? Next, what machinery in the cell is responsible for causing “starved” ribosomes to press the eject button in the middle of doing their jobs? Finally, what effect does this have on a cancer cell? This work will help us understand how a nutrient like arginine can directly control very important processes in the cell like protein production. It will also reveal how we can take advantage of cancer’s dependence on arginine to shrink tumors.

Giada Bianchi, MD

Multiple myeloma and AL amyloidosis are incurable cancers of blood cells. These blood cells are called plasma cells. There is only one therapy that is available for AL amyloidosis patients. In severe stages, AL amyloidosis patients survive less than one year. Amyloidosis plasma cells cause damage to the body by spilling in the blood a sticky protein. These sticky proteins attach to each other and build up in the heart. Buildup of proteins in the heart causes progressive poor function. AL amyloidosis is a major cause of malfunctioning of the heart and death. To cure AL amyloidosis, we need drugs that 1- stop plasma cells from spilling sticky proteins; 2- kill the cancer plasma cells; and 3-remove the buildup of sticky proteins from the heart. These drugs do not exist, because we do not know how sticky proteins get spilled and why the build-up is not removed.Recently, our lab found out how sticky proteins get out of amyloidosis plasma cells. We also showed that if we stop this process, cancer cells die. Finally, we discovered that cleaner cells that should remove sticky proteins from the heart are reduced and do not function in amyloidosis patients. Based on these data, we will make two novel drugs. One will stop spillage of sticky proteins and kill cancer cells. The other will remove sticky protein from the heart without the need of cleaner cells. Our work is doable and will create therapeutic options for AL amyloidosis patients that could cure their disease.

Kate Markey, MBBS, PhD

Every year, over 25,000 people need to have a stem cell transplant to treat their blood cancer. While this can cure their cancer, it also weakens the immune system. A weak immune system is a problem because it means people get more infections and can experience other complications like their cancer coming back. When we are healthy, our gut is filled with helpful bacteria. During cancer treatment, many patients lose these helpful bugs. Patients who lose the good bacteria after they have a transplant, don’t recover as well as patients who keep their helpful bugs. These good bacteria are needed for strong immune system recovery. We are working in the lab to find new ways to support healthy bugs during cancer treatment. We think this will help the patients’ immune system. Having a healthy immune system means fewer infections and a longer life. If successful, this research could lead to new treatments that help patients feel better during their transplant, avoid infections, and live longer. In the future, we will run clinical trials in transplant patients, which will lead to new standard treatments.

Christina Ferrer, PhD

Funded by the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund

Pancreatic cancer is an extremely deadly disease, due to its ability to spread to other organs early and easily, a process known as metastasis. Molecules called purines are often used to build DNA and have been shown to be used by cancer cells to grow and survive. Pancreatic cancer usually spreads to the liver, an organ rich in purines. We find that pancreatic cancer cells, which contain mutations in certain genes involved in cell growth, prefer to use purines to uncontrollably grow and survive. Our study will identify how metastatic pancreatic cancer cells use purines to spread and survive in organs such as the liver. We will also test FDA-approved drugs used to treat other purine-dependent diseases such as gout and metastatic breast cancer to treat pancreatic cancer addiction to purines.

Abhijit Parolia, PhD

Cancer cells often change their DNA to make more of the genes that help them grow and spread quickly. They do this with special proteins called transcription factors that read DNA, and helper proteins that change the DNA to work better. In prostate cancer cells, a protein called androgen receptor (AR) is the main cause of cancer growth. This is different from how AR works in normal prostate cells, where it helps the prostate develop properly and stops extra growth. We don’t know exactly how AR’s function changes in prostate cancer cells. My research tries to figure this out. With help from the V Foundation Award, my team will study a new protein called NSD2 that works with AR. Notably, NSD2 is only found in prostate cancer cells, not the normal ones. We’ll also test a new drug that stops NSD2 from working and see how well it kills cancer cells in different types of prostate cancer. This research will help us find more proteins that make AR cause cancer and create new medicines that target NSD2 to treat prostate cancer.

Anthony Law, MD, PhD

Funded by the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund with support from the Oral Cancer Cause

Voice is an incredible tool that we use every day to express our feelings and even our health. You can often tell if someone is stressed, happy, or not feeling well just by the way they sound. In fact, over 50 different diseases can cause noticeable changes in a person’s voice. One of the most serious conditions that affect the voice is laryngeal cancer, or cancer of the voice box. This type of cancer can cause major changes in a person’s voice, even in the early stages. Unfortunately, if it is not caught early, it can lead to the loss of voice, difficulty swallowing, and too many cases, death. The earlier we detect laryngeal cancer, the more treatment can preserve the voice and improve survival rates. The problem is that while many people with laryngeal cancer experience voice changes, most people who have a change in their voice do not have cancer. This creates a challenge for primary care doctors, who need to identify the rare instances where voice change suggests something more serious. To help with this, we are developing a machine learning tool that can listen to voice recordings and help doctors figure out when a patient may be at high risk for laryngeal cancer. This could help detect cancer earlier and save lives by making it easier for doctors to know when to refer patients to specialists for further testing.

Benjamin Barwick, PhD

Dr. Joseph Moore Excellence in Oncology Grant*
Funded by Constellation Brands Gold Network Distributors

Myeloma is a blood cancer that causes bone and kidney damage. Myeloma is the second most common blood cancer. New treatments are improving patient lives, but patients have to take medicine for the rest of their life. The cancer eventually adapts to these drugs and harms patients.

We will study myeloma that has become drug resistant. We are testing new therapies that can overcome drug resistance. This new therapy targets something called a co-activator. Co-activators turn on genes that enable the cancer to grow. Our research will treat cancer models with inhibitors of co-activator to understand how they work. We will also test different co-activator inhibitors to see which are most effective. Finally, we will look for genes that cause drug resistance. These studies will help guide ongoing clinical trials in myeloma. The long-term goal of this research is to find the right combination of therapies that will stop myeloma from growing.