Grants and Contracts Details
Description
PROJECT SUMMARY
Cellular 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
cancer biology questions. However, there are surprisingly few techniques available that can quantify the key
metabolic and vascular endpoints together in vivo in real-time with easy access. The goal here is to fill this gap
by developing a point-of-care optical spectroscopy platform with a tumor-sensitive fiber probe and novel data
processing techniques to quantify the major axes of tumor metabolism (glucose uptake, mitochondrial
membrane potential, Bodipy) and the associated vasculature (oxygenation, hemoglobin) on biological models
in vivo in near real-time. For scientific validation and translational research purposes, we will compare our
optical platform against well-established metabolic assays. We will then demonstrate the technology through
addressing a contemporary problem in cancer therapy for head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC).
Specifically, we will address the critical challenge of radio-resistance (RR) in HNSCC and test the hypothesis
that radiotherapy (RT) induced HIF-1α and HIF-2α activation and the following metabolic changes are
responsible for HNSCC RR and recurrence, the tumor-specific genetic editing platform targeting on HIF-1α and
HIF-2α can improve RT efficacy. Our point-of-care optical spectroscopy provides new ways of studying cancer
biology and diseases, and it will also impact the study of a wide array of other biomedical problems through
the lens of tumor bioenergetics and vasculature. Our study on HNSCC RR mechanisms and the demonstration
of tumor-specific genetic editing platform in orthotropic HNSCC models will offer new ways for targeted RT to
improve HNSCC patient survival rates. The platforms and methodologies developed in this project will be
applicable to the study of RR and recurrence in other types of human cancers.
Status | Active |
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Effective start/end date | 8/1/23 → 7/31/28 |
Funding
- National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research: $821,067.00
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