MSU Researcher chosen for NIH New Innovator Award
The National Institutes of Health today announced Michigan State University researcher Jens Schmidt as a recipient of its prestigious New Innovator Award to study how human cells repair damage to their genome and ward off cancer.
Schmidt, assistant professor in the College of Human Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, was awarded $1.5 million for his research on a process called the DNA damage response. Cancer can occur when DNA damage response fails, often due to mutations in tumor suppressor genes, such as BRCA1 and BRCA2. Schmidt hopes the project will lead to new and better treatments.
Building a Trojan Horse to fight breast cancer
With a nearly $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Michigan State University researchers are using nanoscopic particles to turn the body’s own cells into weapons that cancer won’t see coming.
“We are developing a precision, ‘Trojan Horse’ nanotherapy that treats breast cancer without the typical side effects,” said Bryan Smith, an associate professor in MSU’s Biomedical Engineering Department. Smith is also the director of the Translational NanoImmunoEngineering, or T-NIE, Lab, located at the Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering.
Collaboration leads to promising next steps for cancer research
A cancer research company co-founded by an MSU professor has been acquired by the New York biotechnology firm Lodo Therapeutics Corp. in a move that holds potential for the development of innovative drugs that treat cancerous tumors.
The acquisition of Hibiskus BioPharma was announced Sept. 3. Co-founded by André Bachmann of Michigan State University and MichaelPirrung of the University of California, Riverside, the company was established with support from Spartan Innovations and Red Cedar Ventures, both wholly owned subsidies of the MSU Foundation.
Michigan State investigates innovative treatments for pediatric cancers: BTN LiveBIG
Neuroblastoma is a rare form of tumor that develops in immature nerve cells, called neuroblasts, found near the kidneys. Thus, children are the most susceptible to developing them, with neuroblastoma representing 7 to 10 percent of pediatric cancers.
The treatments are much like any other cancer. Chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy can help shrink and kill neuroblastoma cells. But these treatments are harsh for adults; for children they can be their own kind of illness.