Florida breast cancer foundation funds two UCF projects to combat breast cancer
As Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins, two College of Medicine cancer researchers have received statewide grants to support their innovative projects to fight a disease that strikes one in eight American women.
Alicja Copik and Debbie Altomare each received $100,000 from the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation (FBCF), a group focused on supporting innovative research that will create new and better ways to diagnose, treat, and perhaps cure the disease.
Annette Khaled, who leads the College of Medicine’s Cancer Research Division, noted that UCF competed with older, larger programs such as the University of Miami, the Moffitt Cancer Center and the University of Florida to earn the funding. Khaled received UCF’s first FBCF grant in 2012 and since then, seven College of Medicine faculty researchers have earned funding totaling almost $1 million. This is the first year two College of Medicine cancer researchers have earned the state cancer support in the same year.
Copik focuses her research on better arming the body’s natural killer (NK) cells to wipe out cancer. NK cells are the first line of defense in warding off pathogens, such as viruses. Through genetic engineering and nanoparticle technology, Copik has developed NK cells that are better at recognizing and killing cancer cells. Such therapies are much easier on patients. NK cells can do their work without the debilitating impact that comes with current cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. And these energized NK cells can be donated to cancer patients from complete strangers without a risk of rejection.
The FBCF grant will help Copik refine her technologies to specifically fight breast cancer. She will also study how the most recent and still experimental treatment strategies against metastatic breast cancer may affect patients’ own NK cells. Because NK cells clear any residual tumor cells in the body, it’s important that new treatments don’t deplete the body’s natural fighters. With this knowledge, scientists can design better clinical trials and create more combination therapies that incorporate NK cells as additional cancer fighters.
Copik’s NK therapies are currently in clinical trials. She is also researching whether removing one of molecular “brakes” that cancer cells use to avoid being killed -; either through antibodies or genetic engineering -; can enhance NK cell anti-tumor power. In initial laboratory testing, this approach has shown strong results in killing neuroblastoma cancer cell lines, the most common cancer in infants.
“We need to focus on the quality of life for metastatic breast cancer patients,” she says. “We know chemo and radiation work, but they have drastic side effects. We need to harness innovation and innovative thinking to improve care.”
Source: https://industrialnews.co.uk/florida-breast-cancer-foundation-funds-two-ucf-projects-to-combat-breast-cancer/
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Source: IndustrialNews.co.uk
