Almost 1.7 million cancer diagnoses are expected in the United States this year, according to the National Cancer Institute, and close to 40 percent of the population will face a cancer diagnosis at some point in their life.
Research in Boise State University laboratories in areas as diverse as chemistry, biology, physics and engineering is key to improving outcomes in both the prevention and treatment of this dreaded disease. More than a dozen faculty have garnered millions in funding from the American Cancer Society, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Susan G. Komen Foundation, American Lung Association and many others.
The university also supports a Biomolecular Sciences Ph.D. program, established in 2012. The program allows researchers to solve problems by transcending the boundaries between the traditional disciplines of biology, chemistry, physics and computer science.
Doctoral candidates work with faculty on funded projects in areas such as cancer biology, immune disorders, regenerative medicine and vaccine development, among others. Collaborators include several Idaho biomedical entities such as St. Luke’s Health System, Saint Alphonsus Medical System, the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Idaho Bureau of Laboratories.
A SAMPLING OF CURRENT CANCER-RELATED RESEARCH:
Cheryl Jorcyk, biology, and her lab are developing therapeutics targeted against the spread (or metastasis) of cancer from the breast to other organs such as lungs and bones.
Allan Albig, biology, is unraveling the mystery of how a protein in connective tissue signals a cell to grow, or stop growing, leading to new ways to slow or stop growth of cancerous tumors.
Daniel Fologea, physics, is using a protein extracted from earthworms, called lysenin, to help detect and identify a single molecule, such as a cancer marker, in the body.
Elton Graugnard and Will Hughes, materials science and engineering, are collaborators in the multidisciplinary Nanoscale Materials and Device Group, which takes an unconventional approach to DNA and is engineering molecular circuitry for early-stage cancer detection using a simple blood test.
Greg Hampikian, biology, has identified and utilized “nullomers” (DNA sequences absent from a selected species or groups of species), and “primes” (sequences absent from all GenBank data) to create a promising new anti-cancer drug.
Denise Wingett, biomolecular sciences, is investigating how the immune system is involved in the development of diseases like asthma, autoimmunity and cancer, and novel treatments for these diseases including the use of nanotechnology.