Virginia Tech researchers join together on cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment

May is both Brain Tumor Awareness Month and National Cancer Research Month. Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC is dedicated to advancing health through a better understanding of cancer and brain tumors and developing new ways to treat and prevent them.

Our teams of investigators are working to uncover the molecular mechanisms that drive cancer growth, migration, and metastasis. Cancer research extends from childhood cancers to breast cancer to glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer.

In addition to looking toward new treatments, labs are also working to make existing treatments more effective by making cancer cells more vulnerable. We're developing new treatments to halt cancer in its tracks and prevent its return, and on influencing policy to reduce cancer rates.

• For patients with glioblastoma, a deadly type of brain cancer, chemotherapy resistance is a big problem. In findings now online in iScience, senior author Assistant Professor Zhi Sheng shares a signaling pathway believed to be crucial for cancer cell survival under temozolomide treatment, revealing a promising target for treatment-resistant brain cancer.
• Professor Chris Hourigan, a globally recognized physician-scientist, studies and treats blood cancer. He leads Virginia Tech’s Cancer Research Center in Washington, D.C., and on May 2 published findings in  JAMA Oncology that emphasize the importance and practicality of testing for measurable residual disease, a condition that refers to evidence of lingering cancer cells in the body after people receive apparently successful chemotherapy treatment in adults with acute myeloid leukemia. 
• Assistant Professor Roberta Freitas-Lemos in April launched a new lab at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute in Roanoke, where she uses behavioral economics to examine policies at the intersection of tobacco use, health equity, and cancer.
• Professor Robert Gourdie’s lab tests new compounds targeting connexin channels for therapeutic use in wound healing, reducing scarring following breast reconstruction surgery, as well as applications to treat glioblastomas and drug-resistant cancers. Gourdie and his postdoctoral fellow Spencer Marsh were recognized in May with the Hart of the Entrepreneur Impact Award for Tiny Cargo Co., a Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC spinoff company that helps provide safer radiation treatment for cancer patients.
• Assistant Professor Samy Lamouille’s lab studies how cancer cells communicate; he is developing novel therapeutic strategies to target these communication mechanisms to prevent metastases in human cancer progression.
• Professor Warren Bickel studies how a cancer diagnosis and future valuation influence health behaviors.
• Professor Carla Finkielstein studies the molecular clocks that instruct cells when to grow, divide, and die, and how they’re impaired in cancer cells. Her research offers a foundation for the emerging field of chronotherapeutics.
• At the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC labs at Children’s National Research Institute in Washington, D.C., Assistant Professor Jia-Ray Yu is seeking better understanding and therapies surrounding pediatric midline glioma, and Assistant Professor Kathleen Mulvaney is exploring cellular communication to find better cancer treatments.

In addition to their work, the Virginia Tech Cancer Research Alliance includes researchers collaborating with cancer scientists from across multiple universities and health centers to introduce innovative preventions, diagnostics, and therapeutics for a variety of cancers spanning veterinary and human oncology and biomedical cancer research.

Interview
To secure an interview with a cancer researcher, contact Leigh Anne Kelley with Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, lakelley@vtc.vt.edu or 540-526-2002.