Cancer Center Archives - Page 4 of 10 - Sanford Burnham Prebys

Tag: Cancer Center

Institute News

From postdoc to PI, it’s a journey. Don’t forget to pack some support

AuthorSanju Sinha
Date

December 15, 2023

Sanju Sinha (right) with computational biologist Lihe Liu, PhD, a postdoc member of Sinha’s new lab

The journal Nature Cancer asked a dozen early-career investigators to share their thoughts and experiences about starting their own labs in 2023. Among them: Sanju Sinha, PhD, who joined Sanford Burnham Prebys in June. Below is his essay. You can read the rest here.

Don’t forget to pack support 

Against the backdrop of a world emerging from a pandemic, starting my laboratory in 2023 was a whirlwind of excitement and anxiety, against the backdrop of a world emerging from a pandemic.

The goal for my laboratory is to understand cancer initiation and use this knowledge to develop preventative therapies—a goal appreciated by many, yet understudied and underfunded. We are aiming to achieve this by developing computational techniques based on machine-learning and leveraging big data from various sources, such as healthy tissues, pre-cancerous lesions and tumors. This journey has taken several unexpected turns, with its fair share of delights and challenges.

One significant hurdle appeared early: hiring. I recall the advice I received: “Forget it, you can’t hire a postdoc as an early-stage laboratory.” This made me ponder—if I were to choose right now, would I pursue a postdoc? My immediate answer was no. It struck me then: the traditional postdoc route needed a revamp.

Determined to instigate change, I introduced a new role: computational biologist. This position, an alternative to a postdoc, was tailored for transitioning to industry and offered better pay. The response was staggering—more than 400 applications.

Now, I’m proud to lead a fantastic team of three computational biologists from whom I am continually learning. This experience taught me a valuable lesson: crafting roles that serve both the goals of the laboratory and the career aspirations of the applicants can make a world of difference. I urge new principal investigators to shatter norms and design roles that provide fair compensation and smooth industry transition—reflecting the reality of the current job market.

However, the path to establishing a new laboratory was not without setbacks. Rejection is common in this field. I have already experienced a grant rejection and, considering the average grant success rate, I am prepared for many more.

Amid these challenges, my support system proved to be my lifeline. I’m grateful to be part of Sanford Burnham Prebys, which has proved to be more than just a top biomedical research institution. It is a community that provides unparalleled support for early principal investigators through generous startup packages, administrative assistance, hiring and grant-writing guidance, and a network of compassionate peers and mentors.

Equally important is my personal support system—my family, partner and friends who remind me that there is life beyond science, helping me maintain my well-being. This balance, I have realized, is the most crucial tool for anyone on a similar journey—so do not forget to pack support for the ride.

Institute News

The “Eph” system may pave the way for novel cancer therapies

AuthorSusan Gammon
Date

November 27, 2023

Elena Pasquale, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys

Over the past three decades, researchers have been investigating an important cell communication system called the “Eph system,” and the evidence implicating the system in cancer is staggering.

The Eph system is comprised of multiple Eph receptors and their ligands—ephrins—and are involved in contact-dependent communication between cells. They play essential roles in regulating various cellular processes.

Modern studies have shed light on the Eph system’s role in tumor expansion, invasiveness, metastasis, cancer stem cell maintenance and therapy resistance.

This month, Elena Pasquale, PhD, published a review in Nature Reviews Cancer that summarizes the current state of research on the Eph system and its links to cancer progression and drug resistance.

“The Eph system has many critical functions during the development of tissues and organs, but it also has the capacity to either promote or suppress cancer progression and malignancy” says Pasquale. “In cancer, the activities of the Eph system can differ depending on the circumstances—for example, which Eph receptors and ligands are present in a tumor cell, the types of tumor cells in which they function, and the characteristics of these cells.”

“It’s this remarkable versatility that makes the Eph system a compelling but also challenging target for potential therapies,” says Pasquale.

“The aims of this review were to comprehensively survey the large body of data regarding various aspects related to Eph signaling in tumors and to highlight potential strategies for therapeutic targeting,” says Pasquale. “Overall, while significant progress has been made in deciphering the Eph system in cancer, there is much more to learn.

“Gaining a deeper understanding of how the Eph system functions in cancer is challenging but will be essential for the development of targeted therapies and personalized treatment approaches for patients.”

Institute News

A former Sanford Burnham Prebys postdoc writes about science and social responsibility

AuthorScott LaFee
Date

October 18, 2023

Eric Lau headshot

The laboratory, with its precise protocols and sterile tools, seems far removed from the often discordant chaos of U.S. society. But science does not happen in a socio-political vacuum, says  Eric Lau, PhD, a former student and postdoc at Sanford Burnham Prebys, and research institutions shouldn’t pretend otherwise.

Writing in Nature Reviews Cancer, Lau, now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Tumor Microenvironment & Metastasis at the Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa, Fl., calls for scientific institutions to become proactive against discrimination and to speak out against oppression while prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion.

In a deeply personal essay, Lau chronicles his personal struggles to overcome both xenophobia and the “delusional and detrimental model minority myth” of Asian-American kids, plus persistent homophobia and hate-mongering.

Science and the relationships formed with mentors, such as Kristiina Vuori, Wei Jiang, Robert Abraham, Gen-Sheng Feng and Ze’ev Ronai, as well as a handful of close colleagues at Sanford Burnham Prebys, were life- and career-affirming, he said, “but sadly all too rarely seen in the broader world.”

“Our nation claims to celebrate diversity and immigration….Yet racism and xenophobia are being amplified by governors who viciously traffic vulnerable migrants to other states and by Supreme Court justices who eviscerate affirmative action and approve anti-LGBT+ discrimination,” Lau writes.

“As much as most researchers might prefer to ‘just focus on the science,’ we cannot expect our teams to produce the best science if we turn a blind eye to those being discriminated or the discriminators.”

Willful ignorance and complacency are not options.

Eric Lau headshot in lab coat with old Sanford-Burnham logo

Lau says research institutions can and should take actions to mitigate the socio-political adversity that burdens their team members. Leadership cannot be performative—rather, it must be substantive, transparent and persistent. DEI programs must be built to produce intended results, with zero-tolerance for discrimination.

Lau concludes with a version of Martin Niemoller’s poem “First they came,” written in 1946 about the silence of German intellectuals and clergy (including Niemoller) during the rise of Nazism.
 

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
 

Scientists, says Lau, must speak up and often.
For themselves.
For others.
For everyone.

Institute News

Svasti Haricharan joins the very first Stop & Talk podcast

AuthorSusan Gammon
Date

September 12, 2023

split screen of Svasti Haricharan with stop & talk logo

Svasti Haricharan, PhD, was the first guest on Stop & Talk—a new podcast offered by The Conrad Prebys Foundation. In the broadcast, Svasti shares how she came to be a research leader in therapy-resistant breast cancer and how race affects clinical outcomes.

Early in her career, Svasti would have to present her research over IPA beers in the UK. (She learned to love beer as she connected with her scientific community.) While completing her postdoctoral training in Texas, her boss asked her to help him write a grant application on cancer disparities and how race affects cancer outcomes. At the time, she had no idea that this was an issue because no one had ever brought it up in her 12 years of training. Since then, she’s taken a deep dive into who gets studied, why, and how to ensure that we help more people in the general population living with cancer.

Join Svasti and Grant Oliphant, the CEO of The Conrad Prebys Foundation, for this important conversation about diversity, science, changing the world, and what it means to be open to multiple viewpoints.

Institute News

Ronai discusses new AI-supported breast cancer findings on Arabic-language TV

AuthorScott LaFee
Date

August 7, 2023

hand pointing to mammogram results

This month, researchers in Sweden published a study in The Lancet Oncology that compared the efficacy of artificial intelligence-supported mammogram screening versus the standard double reading by radiologists.

The researchers found in their randomized trial that AI-supported mammography screenings are safe, almost halved radiologists’ workload, and detected cancers that reviewing doctors missed.

Not surprisingly, the findings garnered international news coverage. Breast cancer is a global health threat, with more than 2.3 million women worldwide diagnosed each year and nearly 700,000 deaths.

Ze’ev Ronai, PhD, director of the Cancer Center at Sanford Burnham Prebys, was among experts interviewed by global media to provide context to the Swedish findings. He was interviewed on Alhurra, a U.S. government-owned Arabic-language satellite TV news channel that broadcasts internationally outside of the U.S.

You can watch the interview here. It’s in Arabic, but essentially Ronai said:

“This randomized trial of over 80,000 women offers an important advance for early detection of breast cancer, based on AI support of radiologist workload. AI will assist but not replace the role of radiologists in these assessments, and thus, is expected to enable radiologists to attend to more difficult cases. Caution from detections of less harmful lesions (which was one of the outcomes in this study), requires more training and careful validation. Overall, this is an important and safe advance in our quest for early detection of cancer, in this case, breast cancer.”

Institute News

Preuss internship celebrates 15 years of inspiring young scientists

AuthorMiles Martin
Date

August 2, 2023

2023 Preuss Interns

“I liked how hands-on everything was,” says Preuss intern Amayrani Calderon “The scientists would show us how to do the experiment but then let us do it ourselves. I’d never had that type of experience in a lab before.”

Each year, Sanford Burnham Prebys welcomes a cohort of high school interns from the Preuss School, whose students strive to be the first in their family to graduate from college. This year’s Preuss interns learned hands-on research skills from scientists at the Institute’s NCI-designated Cancer Center and about career possibilities in STEM beyond research.

“My favorite part of the program and about Sanford Burnham Prebys is all the diverse people I met,” says Alejandra Ruiz Ramirez, who is first-generation Mexican American. “I had mentally prepared myself not to see any scientists that look like me, or to potentially be stereotyped as a Mexican American woman, but that isn’t what happened at all. Everybody I met was very welcoming.”

The Preuss internship is an intensive three-week program designed to jumpstart the careers of the next generation of scientific researchers. This year, the first two weeks were spent learning state-of-the art research techniques, such as staining cells for immunohistochemistry and separating proteins with gel electrophoresis.

“Seeing a real lab was a lot different than what I expected,” says Preuss intern Mohamed Haghi-Mohamed. “At school we just do labs on our desks, but seeing the incubators and other machines really changed my perspective and on how science works in the real world.”

For the final week of the program, interns shadowed staff scientists working in various labs throughout the Cancer Center, where they saw the research process firsthand.

“Consuming a lot of media makes you see science as always exciting and fast-paced, but it’s a very different experience actually working in the lab day to day,” says Preuss intern Juan Lomas Hoeung. “Sometimes there’s a lot of downtime but other times things are hectic.

The Preuss internship program also included activities outside of the lab, including panel discussions with scientists, a tour of the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, and a workshop on diversity and equity and STEM. The interns also had lunch with Institute staff each day, where they had the chance to learn and ask questions about varied STEM careers such as research administration, science communication, and philanthropy.

“We wanted the students to see that there are varied paths to a career in STEM, and that these paths aren’t always linear,” says Victoria Carrillo, senior program administrator for the Cancer Center, who oversaw the Preuss internship along with faculty organizer Svasti Haricharan, PhD.

The program culminated in a celebratory luncheon with students, researchers and Institute staff, where the interns had the opportunity to share what they’ve learned from their experience at Sanford Burnham Prebys.

“This was the best environment to learn in because the people here are some of the most expressive and passionate people I’ve met when they’re in the lab talking about what they do,” says Hoeung. “Everybody was so enthusiastic.”

Institute News

How cancer research silos perpetuate inequity in cancer outcomes: An interview with Svasti Haricharan

AuthorMiles Martin
Date

April 18, 2023

Svasti Haricharan, PhD

The National Institutes of Health recognizes National Minority Health Month each April. This is a time to raise awareness about the importance of reducing the health disparities faced by racial and ethnic minorities.

For our part, we spoke to Assistant Professor Svasti Haricharan, PhD, about her recently published review in Clinical Cancer Research. The paper describes some of the shortfalls of the current research focusing on cancer disparities. It also reveals what needs to happen to solve this problem. 

This paper describes “research silos” in cancer disparities, but what does this term mean?
The cancer research community has made a lot of progress recognizing that cancer research has a data diversity problem. We know that we need more researchers working on cancer disparities—for example, finding explanations as to why some racial and ethnic minorities have worse cancer survival rates than others. We also know that we need to generate more inclusive data in cancer research generally, which means building databases that include data from people of different backgrounds.

However, what we’re talking about in this new paper is a bit more subtle than that. It has more to do with which disparities researchers are studying and how they’re studying them. Cancer-disparities researchers tend to fall into two different categories with two very different approaches. One group focuses more on the societal problems driving disparities, and the other group is looking closely at the biology. But these two paths aren’t intersecting, which is preventing us from truly addressing racial disparities in cancer.

Can you tell us more about those two groups and how this division affects cancer research?
The first group includes researchers who study cancer disparities in the way most people understand them. They focus on social determinants of health, such as socioeconomic status and systemic bias in the healthcare system. The second group looks at the biology directly, focusing on how genetics impacts the molecular biology of cancer. These are both important research areas, and we’ve made a lot of progress independently with each of them.

The problem is that focusing on one or the other ignores something critical that has gained attention in recent years: lifestyle factors have a direct impact on the molecular biology of cancer. Our lived experiences leave a unique footprint in our cells on top of what’s already there because of what we inherited at birth. By keeping these two types of cancer research trapped in silos, we’re missing synergistic leaps that could truly transform our understanding of cancer outcome inequity. Breaking down these silos is the only way to keep moving this type of research forward.

How can we break down these silos? 
Looking at it broadly, funding bodies need to invest more in research that develops datasets using biological samples from underrepresented groups. This will help us learn more about how societal factors can have a different impact on the biology of cancer—depending on the person with the disease. Here in the lab, we need to create experimental systems that better represent the biology of people from racial and ethnic minorities. This could also help us solve an even bigger problem.

Therapeutic strategies for cancer that we find in the lab don’t often make it to the clinic. Improving the diversity of our cancer data will improve this success-to-failure ratio. It will help us identify treatments that work better in some people than in others and choose the best treatments for each patient. In other words, it will help us work toward truly individualized medicine. Ultimately, we can only develop good precision medicine for cancer when we start looking at all patient demographics more equitably.

Institute News

Behind the scenes at Sanford Burnham Prebys’ Cancer Center

AuthorMiles Martin
Date

March 28, 2023

A scientist - a young woman with glasses - presents her poster on colorectal cancer to a group of interested open house guests

Cancer Center open house connects San Diego community with scientists working toward cancer cures

The Institute’s NCI-designated Cancer Center hosted an open house to showcase the latest research advances in cancers of the digestive system. The event was sponsored by the center’s Community Advisory Board (CAB), which provides a link to community networks of people—including patients, survivors and their loved ones.

“These events are especially helpful for people affected by cancer because our researchers can explain the science behind the disease and the approaches we use to find new treatments,” says Associate Professor Cosimo Commisso, PhD, who co-hosted the event with Adjunct Associate Professor Pamela Itkin-Ansari, PhD “As researchers, it’s critical that we have community participation to influence our research—so we benefit as well.” 

The open house, which was free to the public, fulfills a key part of the CAB’s mission—to create awareness of the cancer research being done at the Institute and to promote dialogue between its scientists and the community. Guests had the chance to mingle with cancer researchers, and there was also a panelist table, where they could ask questions directly to a panel including two cancer survivors and a clinician.

The theme of the open house was cancers of the digestive system, which includes pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, stomach cancer and colorectal cancer. Although these cancers are very diverse, one thing many cancers of the digestive system have in common is that they take a long time to diagnose and are difficult to treat. 

“These are devastating cancers,” says Commisso. “We’ve doubled the survival rates for pancreatic cancer since I started working in this field over a decade ago, but it’s still only around 10%. And that’s just not good enough.”

Attendees also got behind-the-scenes tours of labs, including Commisso’s, where researchers are working to halt pancreatic cancer by blocking nutrients—in essence, starving tumor cells of the fuel they need to grow and proliferate. 

“We have a lot of researchers taking different approaches to cancer here at the Institute, and it’s important for people affected by cancer to know that while we’re still a long way off from ending cancer forever, we’re still making progress,” adds Commisso.

Institute News

Padres Pedal the Cause 2023: Team Sanford Burnham Prebys raises $50,000 for cancer research

AuthorMiles Martin
Date

March 20, 2023

Group photo of Team Sanford Burnham Prebys 2023

Team Sanford Burnham Prebys hit the pavement this weekend for Padres Pedal the Cause, an annual fundraising event that invites participants to cycle, spin, run or walk to support local cancer research. The funds raised through each year’s race go to seed grants that fund collaborative cancer research projects in San Diego.

“Padres Pedal the Cause is a chance for the cancer community to come together and remember why collaboration is so important in cancer research,” says bike rider Ze’ev Ronai, PhD, director of the Institute’s NCI-designated Cancer Center. “Virtually all of us know somebody who has been impacted by cancer, including me. This is my fifth Padres Pedal the Cause, and every year I’m so proud to be part of our Institute’s team and help contribute to cancer research outside the lab.”

This year’s team was formidable: 56 employees and friends of the Institute signed up to either ride, run, or walk in the event. Team members came from all areas of the Institute, including faculty, staff scientists, administrative staff, postdocs, and even current and former members of the Institute’s Board of Trustees, such as Bill Gerhart and Steve Williams. Other notable names on this year’s team included longtime participants such as Professor Nicholas Cosford, PhD and James Short, associate director of Digital Communications and Design. 

“I’ve been with Padres Pedal the Cause since the very beginning, and it’s one of the highlights of my year,” says Short, who has helped lead the Institute’s team for the last 10 years.

The team also included some new members this year, such as Assistant Professor Lukas Chavez, PhD, and Director of Experimental Pharmacology Raghu Ramachandra, PhD, who both joined the Institute late last year. 

While Institute employees were well represented on this year’s team, there were also current some of the team’s top fundraisers had a different reason to join team Sanford Burnham Prebys. Kim McKewon is a longtime donor to the Institute and has been participating in Padres Pedal the Cause since its inception in 2013. This year she raised more than $6,000; and to date, she has raised more than $30,000. 

“I pedal for my husband, Ray, who is in remission from leukemia because of science and research, the very focus of the grants that are given from the fundraising that comes out of this event,” she writes in her website bio.

It’s not too late to support Team Sanford Burnham Prebys
To date, team Sanford Burnham Prebys has raised more than $300,000 through Padres Pedal the Cause since its inception in 2013. And while this year’s ride is over, there is always time to support local cancer research. The fundraising deadline for this year’s Padre’s Pedal the Cause is April 18, and 100% of every dollar raised goes toward lifesaving cancer research. Help team Sanford Burnham Prebys create a world without cancer.

Support Team Sanford Burnham Prebys

 

 

Institute News

Sanford Burnham Prebys researchers awarded Curebound grants

AuthorMiles Martin
Date

March 20, 2023

Aninyda Bagchi, PhD, Linda Bradley, Lukas Chavez, PhD, Nicholas Cosford, PhD, and Michael Jackson, PhD

Each year, Sanford Burnham Prebys joins Padres Pedal the Cause, an annual fundraising event that raises money for Curebound which awards collaborative cancer grants in the San Diego area.

These grants include Discovery Grants, which provide seed funds for high-risk/high-reward research in the earliest phases, and Targeted Grants, which are larger awards ($500K) that help translate promising discoveries into treatments for the clinic.

In the 2022-2023 Curebound Research portfolio, five researchers from Sanford Burnham Prebys were awarded grants: Associate Professor Anindya Bagchi, PhD, Professor Linda Bradley, PhD, Assistant Professor Lukas Chavez, PhD, Professor Nicholas Cosford, PhD, and Professor Michael Jackson, PhD

2022 Discovery Grant: Treating incurable pediatric brain tumors 
Bagchi and Chavez will collaborate to advance a new therapeutic approach for medulloblastoma, the most common childhood brain tumor. They will be focusing on a gene called MYC, found only in the deadliest forms of medulloblastoma. This form of brain cancer is currently untreatable, but Bagchi and Chavez recently discovered a molecule that can help control the activity of the MYC gene and potentially inhibit the growth of medulloblastoma tumors. The researcher holds promise to reveal a new treatment approach for this incurable cancer. 

The grant is titled “Decoding the Role of the Long Non-Coding RNA PVT1 in Medulloblastoma.”

2023 Targeted Grant: Discovering a new immunotherapy drug for melanoma
Bradley will be working with Soo Jin Park, MD, from UC San Diego Health to advance a new immunotherapy approach for malignant melanoma. Despite recent advances, this type of skin cancer still causes thousands of deaths in the U.S. each year. The goal of their project is to develop a new drug for melanoma that can reactivate the tumor-killing properties of the patient’s own immune system. This therapeutic approach has the potential to destroy tumors that are resistant to existing therapies, which could help save lives.

The grant is titled, “Advancing Immune Checkpoint Inhibition of PSGL-1 for Treatment of Malignant Melanoma.
 

2022 Discovery Grant: Developing drugs for bone-metastatic prostate cancer
Cosford will work with Christina Jamieson, PhD, from the University of California, San Diego, to advance a new treatment approach for prostate cancer that has spread to the bones. Bone is the most common place for prostate cancer to metastasize, and this form of cancer is currently incurable. The researchers will look for drugs that can kill tumor cells by inhibiting autophagy, a process that promotes tumor progression. The results of the study could identify a new drug ready for clinical trials.

The grant is titled “Pre-Clinical Development of New Autophagy Targeting Drugs for Bone Metastatic Prostate Cancer.”

2022 Discovery Grant: Repurposing drugs for deadly childhood brain cancer
Jackson and Chavez will collaborate to identify new treatment options for ependymoma, an aggressive pediatric brain tumor and leading cause of death among childhood cancer patients. The researchers will screen patient tumor cells against drugs already approved by the FDA for other conditions, looking for drugs that could be repurposed to fight these tumors. Because FDA-approved drugs are known to be safe for humans, this may prove to be the quickest way to help patients currently living with this cancer. 

The grant is titled “High Throughput-Screen for Inhibitors of Pediatric Ependymoma.”