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The philosophy
our research team can be summarized in a quote by William Henry Welch, which
describes “translational research” about a century before the term was
coined: “The discovery of the healing serum is entirely the result of
laboratory work. In no sense was the
discovery an accidental one. Every
step leading to it can be traced, and every step was taken with a definite
purpose and to solve a definite problem.
These studies and resulting discoveries mark an epoch in the history
of medicine.” Our approach is to first define the important clinical
questions. Next, we generate hypotheses that address the questions and design
a series of experiments that will support or refute the hypotheses. Currently, we are trying to address the clinical questions
of how to prevent and treat cancer, polycystic kidney disease (PKD) and
polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCO). Click here to view a simplified version of our plan to
develop a cancer prevention pill. Cancer Hypotheses: Certain patterns of molecular
alterations can transform normal cells into cancer cells. Interfering with a subset of these
alterations can prevent cancer or induce a natural form of cell death called
apoptosis. Also, interfering with the
development of blood vessels within tumors (angiogenesis) can prevent and
treat cancer. Click on the links
below for details on Cancer Experimental Approaches: ·
Develop and validate a 3-D organotypic model of carcinogenesis and chemoprevention ·
Identify the molecular alterations that occur during these dynamic
processes. ·
Determine if preventing these molecular alterations also prevent these
processes. ·
Evaluate clinical specimens for target molecules involved in these
processes. ·
Develop drugs that interfere
with or “target” the validated molecular alterations. For PKD, our lead heteroarotinoids (Het) compound, called
SHetA2, is being evaluate in the cpk/cpk mouse model. For PCO, the POMC obese mouse model is being characterized
for the PCO phenotype and will be tested for SHetA2 effects. Current Members of
our Research Team are: ·
Doris M. Benbrook, Ph.D. Principal Investigator ·
Tongzu Liu, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow ·
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Patience Current and Past Lab
Group Photos: |
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