Projects and Grants per year
Grants and Contracts Details
Description
ABSTRACT: Tumor cell metabolism is highly dynamic and strongly influenced by its local
vascular microenvironment, gaining a systems-level view of tumor metabolism and vasculature in
vivo is essential in understanding many critical problems in cancer biology and therapeutics. Many
types of human tumors can flexibly switch between glycolysis and mitochondrial metabolism
under a range of oxygen conditions, which renders some therapies ineffective, therefore capturing
both metabolism and vascular microenvironment alterations will be critical in understanding tumor
treatment resistance and recurrence mechanisms. Several tools with a variety of practical and
scientific limitations are currently used to report on different endpoints to piece together a narrative
on tumor metabolism or vasculature. Unfortunately, none of them can simultaneously quantify the
major metabolic and vascular parameters in vivo in real-time at cellular level resolution, though it
is vital to do so for both basic biology science and therapeutics studies. Furthermore, most of
them are: (1) housed in core facilities that require transporting samples or animals to their site;
(2) costly in equipment and user fees (often hundreds dollars /service), and (3) time-consuming
(few days) due to special sample preparation and complicated data processing. These factors all
limit their access for high frequency measurements in cancer research. To maximize the ease
and accessibility in obtaining in vivo tumor metabolism and vasculature measurements, it is highly
significant to develop multi-modal metabolic tools with point-of-care and low-cost footprints,
allowing one to quantify tumor metabolic and vascular endpoints together in vivo in real-time with
easy access, in the aim of advancing many critical cancer biology inquires. In this pilot project,
we aim to develop a point-of-care and easy-to-use functional microscope capable of
simultaneously imaging the several major metabolic and vascular parameters of small tumors in
vivo at cellular level resolution (Aim 1). To demonstrate the proof-of-concept of our technique, we
will utilize our microscope to reveal the role of radiation induced HIFs and the following metabolic
and vascular changes in radio-resistance (RR) development in breast cancers (Aim 2). Our novel
techniques will significantly impact cancer research by providing a point-of-care approach for
quantifying tissue metabolism and vasculature together in vivo in near real-time at low-cost and
will have broad impact across many biomedical fields through the lens of tissue bioenergetics and
vasculature.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 12/1/22 → 12/31/23 |
Funding
- American Cancer Society
Fingerprint
Explore the research topics touched on by this project. These labels are generated based on the underlying awards/grants. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Projects
- 1 Finished