UB and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute have been awarded $6.7 million in federal grants from the National Cancer Institute to further develop detection and treatments for the disease.
UB has now received two of only 12 such grants awarded and remains nationally recognized for its work in cancer research.
"It's a nice sign of collaboration between Roswell and the university," said Allan Oseroff, chair of UB's department of dermatology who also works at the downtown Roswell Park.
The $3.46 million grant for UB was awarded to Paras Prasad, director of UB's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, to expand nanotechnology, which will provide early detection of pancreatic cancer. The work will also involve scientists at John Hopkins University.
The $3.3 million grant for Roswell Park was awarded to Oseroff to further develop photodynamic therapy, which will involve scientists at the University of Michigan.
The goals of the two grants have completely different objectives, but one of the goals of future cancer research is to combine the two technologies.
"You're creating a marriage between these two, bringing in nanotechnology to increase photodynamic therapy," Prasad said. "Nanotechnology and photodynamic therapy can work together to better detect and treat cancer."
Prasad's work with the Sol Goldman Pancreatic Research Center at John Hopkins University will facilitate discovery and treatment in pancreatic cancer.
"Lab discoveries can be taken to bedside. We will be able to move very quickly from pre-clinical to clinical trials and treatment," Prasad said.
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth largest killing cancer in the United States, claiming 32,000 lives annually. Diagnosed patients have an average survival rate of five years.
"Our goal is to detect pancreatic cancer at a very early stage. That's the key idea," Prasad said. "We will be able to detect cancer cells, even very small areas where imaging cannot."
Nanotechnology involves nanoparticles a millionth of the size of a golf ball.
"We can create a small pouch and load that with treatment and then carry it to cancer cells targeting the specific site, which leaves healthy tissues unaffected," he said.
A previous $1 million grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation was critical to laying the groundwork for nanotechnology at UB and Roswell's joint research programs.
Work in photodynamic therapy at Roswell Park uses laser light to better target and manipulate tumors. The treatment involves drug photosensitizers, Oseroff said.
"When they absorb specific colors of light they kill the cells that they're on. The light is harmless on its own. The light and the drug interact."
"It becomes very, very selective. It's only where you shine the light."
The treatment is unlike chemotherapy that destroys other healthy areas of the body and causes intense sickness in patients.
Photodynamic therapy can be used to treat a wide range of cancers and has been used for lung, gastrointestinal, skin, brain, bladder and breast cancers.
The cancer research grants will also mean multidisciplinary training of students from the departments of chemistry, biology, engineering, biomedical engineering and physics.
"It helps students because it provides an opportunity to see and be involved in translating work from the laboratory to the patients," Oseroff said.
"Students can be trained in this area at both the graduate and undergraduate levels," said Prasad, who leads UB's research in nanotechnology.
Patrick Snyder, a first year graduate student of chemistry, said he is currently working with a manipulation tool that can be used in cancer treatments.
"As I gain more experience doing this, I can work on the larger UB project," he said. "I'm really interested in this work and I think it's fun. I would recommend anyone with a chemistry background to become involved in it."
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
