Neamati Gets $1.1M for Cancer Research
Photo/Lee Salem Photography Inc.
Neamati’s work features a novel drug system that delivers antitumor effects to both tumor cells and the blood vessels that feed them. His hypothesis has its greatest potential in highly metastatic tumors, such as non-small cell lung cancer.
“Since this project examines solid tumors that express integrin on the cell surface, our findings should also apply to other cancers, including brain, breast, prostate, ovary and colon,” said Neamati, whose research is also supported by the American Association for Cancer Research, the Department of Defense and the American Lung Association.
Neamati works at the interface between the traditional laboratory and the computer lab. His expertise in computational drug design allows his lab to evaluate hundreds of thousands of compounds in the search for the right structure to do the job at hand.
His research has surfaced a number of compounds that have distinctively different structure and function qualities than known anticancer agents. This provides promise in lung cancer since many of the currently available chemo drugs are not effective against it.
“Our idea is to develop AV38, our highly selective integrin antagonist, as a novel antitumor agent for non-small cell lung cancer alone and in combination with currently used chemotherapy. We hypothesize that combining our targeted therapy with conventional therapy will increase efficacy without added toxicity to patients,” Neamati explained.
The research also calls for monitoring the effects of the agents through advanced imaging techniques.
“There are currently several agents that work to eliminate the integrin protein in cancer that have moved into preclinical and clinical trials. However, none of these studies are including non-small cell lung cancer. Our work fills this gap,” Neamati said.
Non-small cell lung cancer comprises 85 percent of all lung cancer cases. Currently, lung cancer is the leading cancer killer, ending the lives of more than 160,000 Americans each year.
Neamati’s research has support from the Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation, the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the Whittier Foundation, the American Association of Cancer Research and the UniversityWide AIDS Research Program.
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USC in the News
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The Chronicle of Higher Education mentioned USC’s $6 billion fundraising campaign. The story noted that USC had already raised $1 billion in a “quiet phase,” including the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College.
The Guardian (U.K.) highlighted two major gifts to USC in a list of the 10 biggest philanthropic benefactors in America. The list included the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
The New York Times featured the USC U.S.-China Institute documentary “Assignment: China — The Week that Changed the World.” The documentary, part of a series, examines media coverage of the 1972 Nixon trip that reshaped U.S.-China relations after a quarter century of isolation and hostility. “People look back now and take it for granted that the outcome was preordained,” said the institute’s Mike Chinoy, who produced the documentary. Voice of America also featured the story.
Los Angeles Times featured the Oscar Senti-meter, a tool developed by the USC Annenberg School, Los Angeles Times and IBM that analyzes thousands of tweets about the Academy Awards nominees. The story noted that Mexican actor Demian Bechir received an enormous boost on Twitter the day of the nominations, with a total of 6,893 tweets mentioning him, a 47-fold increase from the day before. The story noted the tool uses language-recognition technology developed in collaboration with USC Viterbi School’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab.
The Times of India (India) featured a three-day medical emergency training workshop organized in association with USC. At the workshop, held at GCS Medical College in India, 50 doctors and more than 100 paramedics learned how to improve emergency support systems. William Mallon of the Keck School of USC said that discussion topics included the use of portable ultrasonic devices to scan patients. “The ultrasound applications help physicians make accurate and timely decisions,” he noted. Daily News & Analysis (India) also featured the workshop.
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