Cleveland Clinic researcher earns $2.6 million grant to understand colorectal cancer disease development
The National Cancer Institute has awarded Cleveland Clinic a collaborative $2.6 million grant to create models of colorectal cancer that will enhance understanding of how the disease develops and spreads, according to a news release.
The National Cancer Institute has awarded Cleveland Clinic a collaborative $2.6 million grant to create models of colorectal cancer that will enhance understanding of how the disease develops and spreads, according to a news release. Dr. Emina Huang, Clinic researcher and a colorectal surgeon in the Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute was awarded the five-year grant, a collaboration between the Clinic, Duke University and Cornell University. Huang also is a sta member in the Lerner Research Institute"s Department of stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. She co-directs Lerner Research Institute"s Center of Excellence in Colon Cancer Metastasis Research, which brings together scientists and physicians to speed the translation of lab discoveries into benefits for patients. "I"m very excited to lead a project that brings together some of the top surgeons, researchers and biomedical engineers in their respective fields," Huang said in a prepared statement. "Colorectal cancer aects millions of adults in the United States. In some cases, the five-year survival rate is less than 13 percent. In order to develop eective treatment and prevention therapies for such a serious and complex disease, and deliver them to the patients and families who so desperately need them, we"ll need to work collaboratively across specialties and disciplines. With this new project, I think we"re well on our way." The grant is the newest project funded by NCI"s Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative (TEC) Research Program, which supports state-of-the-art tissue engineered technologies for cancer research, according to the release. NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health. Huang, the principal investigator for the project, will work with her team to develop three leading-edge models of colorectal cancer using human tissues from the colon and other sites in the body. Each collaborating organization will take the lead on developing one of the models.
Huang"s lab will remove native cells from human colons, taken from resected colons and cancerous lesions, and repopulate them with new both healthy and cancer cells, according to the release. Studying the response of dierent classes of cells can help researchers understand the roles inflammation and cellular invasion and dierentiation play in metastasis. Michael L. Shuler, the Eckert Professor of Engineering at Cornell University, will develop a model using new body-on-a-chip technology, which uses human cells to create tiny, organ-like structures that simulate the function of a human colon. The team at Duke University, led by professor Xiling Shen of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, will validate the two other models in an animal metastasis model, in the hopes of better understanding the role the immune system may play in shaping colorectal cancer metastasis.
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