With the help of a new research grant, U professor Jody Rosenblatt will study early prevention of the spread of tumors.
At an award ceremony in Maryland, Rosenblatt and 28 other recipients were presented with the Innovator Award. The grant offers $1.5 million over five years to each of the recipients who were specifically chosen for “new and innovative research methods.”
While doing post-doctorate work in London, Rosenblatt, U oncology professor, researched the method by which living cells squeeze dying cells out of the body.
“I want to research more what happens to the dying cells and what trigger is given off that makes healthy cells squeeze them out,” she said.
When the dying cell signals other cells, the healthy cells form a “contraptile” or tunnel through which the cell is squeezed out of the body. Tumor cells are mutated and programmed to survive. They can become dangerous if they spread.
When healthy cells are signaled to remove the mutated cells, the damaged cells can occasionally be pulled back into the body and may begin to spread. Cancer can be treated with chemotherapy, but tumor cells that grow and spread become more difficult to treat.
“We believe that tumors spread when mutated cells are squeezed out and enter the luminal space — they sometimes come back into the body and metastasize by spreading out,” Rosenblatt said.
Rosenblatt’s study will also focus on isolating the trigger that makes living cells remove the dying ones.
“We think the trigger may be a lipid (fat molecule) signal, but we won’t know until we start our research,” she said.
Jeremy Berg, director of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health, said the grant is intended for researchers who have never received a previous grant and are relatively new to research work. “We want to encourage investigators to really work on innovative projects by funding them early on in their research,” he said.
The grant program received more than 2,000 applications.
The grant money is to be disbursed sometime within the next few weeks.
“New researchers can have a difficult time securing grants — I’ve been trying for the past two years,” Rosenblatt said. “I’ll be able to set up a lab for this type of research and buy lab equipment that I usually wouldn’t be able to afford.”