Tag Archives: professor

How cancer cells avoid cell death

Metastasis, the spread of cancer from one organ to other parts of the body, relies on cancer cells ability to evade a cell death process called anoikis, according to Zachary T. Schafer, Coleman Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology at Notre Dame. Metalizing cancer cells are able to survive anoikis, which normally results from detachment from the extracellular matrix. …

Herding cancer cells to their death

If caught early, melanoma is relatively easy to treat. But in its late stages, it is a stubborn and deadly cancer. Until about a decade ago, patients survived only about seven months after starting treatment. Since then, therapies, such as vemurafenib, that specifically target signaling proteins essential to the proliferation and survival of melanoma cells have extended the lives of some patients. …

Men who can’t produce sperm face increased cancer risk

"An azoospermic man’s risk for developing cancer is similar to that for a typical man 10 years older," said Michael Eisenberg, MD, PhD, assistant professor of urology at the medical school and director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at Stanford Hospital & Clinics. Eisenberg is lead author of the study, published online June 20 in Fertility and Sterility. …

Realistic 3-d tumor created through tissue engineering using silk scaffolds

The team comprised Professor James Goh, Associate Professor Toh Siew Lok and Dr Pamela Tan from the Department of Bioengineering at NUS Faculty of Engineering, and Associate Professor Saminathan Suresh Nathan from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, who carried out their study using osteosarcoma, which is the most prevalent form of paediatric primary bone cancer. Reconstructing tumours in the laboratory has been a hot topic for research as current methods of testing have not been sufficient to yield concrete results. Dr Tan, who has been researching on the 3-D model for her PhD thesis, said: "Despite the urgent need to develop cancer therapeutics, little progress has been made due to the lack of good pre-clinical drug testing models. …

Chemical probe confirms that body makes its own rotten egg gas, H2S, to benefit health

Hydrogen sulfide, or H2S, is normally toxic, but in small amounts it plays a role in cardiovascular health. In the new study, chemists developed a chemical probe that reacts and lights up when live human cells generate hydrogen sulfide, says chemist Alexander R. Lippert, Southern Methodist University, Dallas…

Exposure to BPA in developing prostate increases risk of later cancer: Ubiquitous plasticizers may have long-term health effects

Prins presented her findings at the ENDO 2013 meeting in San Francisco June 17. "This is the first direct evidence that exposure to BPA during development, at the levels we see in our day-to-day environment, increases the risk for prostate cancer in human prostate tissue," said Prins, professor of physiology and director of the andrology laboratory in urology at the UIC College of Medicine. The increased risk can be traced to prostate stem and progenitor cells which become "sensitized" to estrogen early in development through exposure to BPA — which mimics estrogen in the body. …

Exposure to low doses of BPA linked to increased risk of prostate cancer in human stem cells

BPA is a synthetic estrogen that is used to add flexibility to many common products, including food cans and containers, compact discs, eyeglasses, and even baby bottles. It is universally prevalent, and tests indicate that almost everyone has measurable levels of the chemical in their bodies. The chemical has received a great deal of media attention in recent years because of its potential to increase the risk of disease…