Current Laboratory Research

Cancer remains a formidable disease of mankind. Despite the striking advances made over the past few decades in the management of cancer, the disease kills 4 individuals in the United States and 15 individuals in the world every minute, 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week. Early and accurate detection saves lives.

The major thrust of research in this laboratory is to develop specific biomolecules that will target genomic biomarkers for early and accurate diagnosis of cancer, and then to treatment resulting in saving patients’ lives with improved quality of life. Genomic biomarkers are a hallmark of many cancers. VPAC biomarkers, for example, are expressed on cell surfaces in high densities at the onset of oncogenesis. When VPAC receptors are targeted, cancer can be diagnosed not only early, but also specifically, allowing physicians to distinguish malignant lesions from benign masses. This can lead to minimizing a large number of unnecessary biopsies currently required to obtain a tissue for histology, which can induce anxiety in patients and cost billions of healthcare dollars.

Supported by NIH, this laboratory, during the past few years, has developed a biomarker for PET imaging of breast and prostate cancer. Evaluated in vitro and in transgenic laboratory animals, the research has been translated to early clinical trials both for imaging breast and prostate cancer.