Cancer

Oncorus, Inc., is a viral immunotherapies company founded in 2016 which is focused on driving innovation to transform outcomes for cancer patients, and is a company spun out of the University of Pittsburgh. The technology for the Massachusetts-based company was licensed from Pitt from the lab of Joseph Glorioso, PhD, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics in Pitt’s School of Medicine and an affiliated faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Glorioso was one of the founders of Oncorus and is chair of the company’s scientific advisory board. Read More

Fighting cancer and chronic disease is tiring work for the immune system. When T cells are engaged in this kind of lengthy battle, they can become exhausted, or unable to function properly. One immunotherapy that revitalizes these cells by blocking an immune checkpoint protein called LAG3 was recently approved by federal regulators. But exactly how LAG3 works has remained a mystery — until now. Read More

The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine welcomes new affiliated faculty member Hamza Yazdani, MD. Read More

The multidisciplinary team consisting of seven McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members from four University of Pittsburgh Schools: Read More

Congratulations to McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Kurt Weiss, MD, Associate Professor, Vice Chair of Translational Research, University of Pittsburgh Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Division of Musculoskeletal Oncology, who was named the 2021 OutSmarting Osteosarcoma Research Grant Winner by the MIB (Make It Better) Agents, a leading pediatric osteosarcoma nonprofit. Read More

An international collaborative study by researchers at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) University of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Beaumont RCSI Cancer Centre (BRCC), the Mayo Clinic, and the University of Pittsburgh has revealed a potential new way to treat secondary breast cancer that has spread to the brain, using existing drugs. The study is published in Nature Communications. Read More

By combining computational and experimental approaches, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Prairie View A&M University researchers identified cancer drugs that show promise for treating pulmonary hypertension, or PH, a rare and incurable lung disease. Read More

Most cells throughout the body can divide and multiply to replace old cells and repair damaged tissue, but in response to certain stresses, cells can lose their ability to proliferate. These so-called senescent cells accumulate with age and may contribute to cancer and age-related disorders, such as chronic lung disease, cardiovascular disease, frailty, and dementia, by pumping out signals that damage neighboring tissues. Read More

An international team of researchers—including McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Ioannis Zervantonakis, PhD—led by California State University, Northridge (CSUN) biology professor Jonathan Kelber, PhD, has identified, for the first time, that the PEAK1 gene can promote cancer metastasis and therapy resistance in aggressive HER2-positive breast cancers. Read More

Paul Kirsch of Greentree is a retired U.S. Marine and Reservist, teacher and administrator in the Northgate and Keystone Oaks school districts, and a former Keystone Oaks School Board member. He had his first job in sixth grade and worked post-retirement until he was 80, teaching education classes at a local college. Now at age 87, Mr. Kirsch’s upbeat attitude and enthusiasm for life hasn’t waned. Read More

Oncologists faced with treating older women with breast cancer often must decide if the treatment may be more detrimental than the cancer. A study published in JAMA Network Open by researchers at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine sheds new light on this choice and suggests the rate of cancer recurrence or survival may be no different in treated vs. untreated elderly patients diagnosed in the early stages of the cancer diagnosed most commonly in women.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steffi Oesterreich, PhD, the Shear Family Foundation Chair in Breast Cancer Research Professor and Vice-Chair Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, University of Pittsburgh; Co-Leader Cancer Biology Program, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center (UPMC HCC); and Co-Director Women’s Cancer Research Center, UPMC HCC and Magee Womens Research Institute, is a co-author on the study. Read More

People with cancer that affects the blood, bone marrow or lymph nodes are at elevated risk of COVID-19 vaccine failure, particularly those with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, according to new results from an analysis of UPMC Hillman Cancer Center patients. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Alan Wells, MD, DMSc, medical director of UPMC Clinical Laboratories and the Thomas Gill III Professor of Pathology in Pitt’s School of Medicine, is a co-author of these results. Read More

University of Pittsburgh bioengineer Partha Roy, PhD, Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Cell Biology, and Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, received awards from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institute of Health and the Magee Women’s Cancer Research and Education Funding Committee to investigate the role of actin-binding protein profilin1 in metastatic breast cancer — the second most common cancer among women in the United States. In 2021, an estimated 281,550 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in U.S. women, and around 15 percent of those cases are expected to be fatal. Read More

DNA viruses, such as herpesviruses and poxviruses, are among the most prolific and deadly viruses on Earth. Their ability to proliferate widely is due in large part to the way these viruses incubate in the body. Many DNA viral infections can enter what’s known as a latent state, in which the person does not experience symptoms of illness, though the virus is still present and able to reactivate to a proliferative state later. Latent viral infections also express different markers than the proliferative phenotypes, rendering them invisible to current treatments and screening. Read More

At the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, the Tumor Microenvironment Engineering Laboratory (TME Lab) is where researchers employ a quantitative approach that integrates microfluidics, systems biology modeling, and in vivo experiments to investigate the role of the tumor microenvironment on breast and ovarian cancer growth, metastasis, and drug resistance. The goal of the TME lab research program is to discover biomarkers that guide new drug development and improve prognosis, develop new strategies to optimize existing treatment protocols, and engineer microfabricated tools that enable screening and personalization of cancer therapies. Read More

McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members who are also members of the Pittsburgh Liver Research Center (PLRC) recently published several articles.  The authors include: Read More

Kidney cancer will have been newly diagnosed in over 73,000 patients in the United States in 2020, resulting in nearly 15,000 deaths.¹ Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) represents the most commonly diagnosed subtype of kidney cancer, accounting for more than 75% of new cases. Approximately 30% of ccRCC patients have metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis, and about 33% will develop recurrent or metastatic disease following treatment, indicating poor prognosis for the majority of ccRCC patients. The signature genetic lesion in ccRCC is the loss of the tumor-suppressing Von-Hippel Lindau (VHL) gene, which results in tumors marked by an abundant vascular microenvironment. With funding from an FY18 Kidney Cancer Research Program (KCRP) Idea Development Award – Established Investigator Option, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Partha Roy, PhD, Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Cell Biology, and Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, set out to develop an in-depth molecular understanding of ccRCC-associated vascularization in an effort to exploit this phenomenon as a therapeutic target. Read More

McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steffi Oesterreich, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is a recipient of a METAvivor Translational Research Award.  Dr. Oesterreich’s project is entitled “Targeting mesothelial – tumor cell interaction to treat invasive lobular cancer metastases.”  This project was one of the 23 new grant awards for metastatic breast cancer research totaling $3,650,000. Read More

Sometimes cancer comes back long after the original tumor has been treated and removed. This is called recurrent cancer. Cancer can recur in the same place as the original tumor or in other places in the body if the tumor cells spread. Cancerous cells can lie dormant for years. But what triggers these cells to reawaken hasn’t been well understood. Read More

McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Nathan Bahary, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh, and a medical oncologist and hematologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Hillman Cancer Center, discusses with Erica DiNapoli for OncLive the importance of seeking targetable alterations in gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, as well as recent advancements in the space. Read More

Oncorus, a viral immunotherapies company focused on driving innovation to transform outcomes for cancer patients and a company spun out of the University of Pittsburgh, recently initiated an initial public stock offering, raising nearly $90 million as it enters clinical trials on its oncolytic virus cancer therapy. That amount is being called the “largest IPO of a Pitt spinout” by the University’s Innovation Institute. Read More

Roughly one in eight women in the United States will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of  her lifetime, and HER2-positive (HER2+) breast cancers represent about 25 percent of all breast cancer cases. Though multiple therapies exist, most patients will develop metastatic disease and resistance to current treatments. Read More

According to the American Cancer Society, a woman’s risk of being diagnosed with ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about one in 78. The majority of ovarian cancer patients are diagnosed with metastatic disease that spreads to other parts of the body and have a low five-year survival rate. Read More

The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine welcomes new affiliated faculty member Ioannis Zervantonakis, PhD. Read More

According to the American Cancer Society, kidney cancer is among the top ten most common cancers in men and women. More than 73,000 new cases and nearly 15,000 deaths are predicted for in the US for 2020. Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) — the most common subtype of tumor associated with kidney cancer — accounts for more than 75 percent of cases. Read More

Pairing chemotherapy nanodrugs with a nutritional supplement can lessen devastating side-effects while reducing the amount of the expensive drugs needed to treat cancer according to a study from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Taiwan’s National Health Research Institutes (NHRI). In addition, pretreatment with the supplement promotes the production of tumor-killing macrophages, making it a promising complement and supplement to existing chemotherapies. Read More

Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) has received $112,500 in funding from A Glimmer of Hope Foundation (GOH) to further research of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and to enhance patient support services at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital. Read More

Pancreatic cancer happens when cells that aren’t normal grow and start to form tumors in the pancreas, a small organ located deep in the belly, behind your stomach.  The pancreas makes juices that help your body digest food. It also makes insulin and other hormones that help control your blood sugar. Read More

According to the American Cancer Society, kidney cancer is among the top ten most common cancers in men and women, and clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) – the most common subtype of tumor associated with kidney cancer – accounts for more than 75 percent of cases. Read More

With Alex Trebek’s recent announcement that his pancreatic cancer is in remission, many people have wondered if this difficult cancer is now easier to treat. Pancreatic cancer remains a major cancer killer, but advances are happening. Read More

Pancreatic cancer is a grim diagnosis, with a five-year survival rate of less than 9 percent. To improve those odds, researchers at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine sought genetic signatures in the largest study of its kind that could be used to better match drugs to patients and for early detection. Read More

In animal models and patient tissues, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine—including McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members Satdarshan “Paul” Monga, MD, professor of pathology and the founding director of the Pittsburgh Liver Research Center at Pitt’s School of Medicine, and Michael Oertel, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and a member of the Pittsburgh Liver Research Center —have identified a new molecular pathway in the liver that suggests a commonly used anti-rejection medication could be repurposed to treat certain liver cancers. Read More

McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steffi Oesterreich, PhD, professor of pharmacology and chemical biology and co-director of the Women’s Cancer Research Center at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and Magee-Womens Research Institute, is one of four leading UPMC Hillman Cancer Center breast cancer researchers that are among the world’s top scientists to share in a record-breaking $63 million investment in cancer research by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). Read More

Mary Kekatos Health Reporter for the Dailymail.com and the Dailymail.com Reporter, recently detailed in her article that statins could prevent the spread of breast cancer, per a new study.  Researchers say the drugs, which combat high cholesterol, do not prevent the cancer from occurring but stop it from spreading to other organs.  Experiments performed in human cells and laboratory mice found that the pills prevent tumors from migrating to the lungs and liver. Read More

Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT), the nation’s only charitable organization dedicated exclusively to funding cancer cell and gene therapy research, announced the recipients of its 2018 research grants using innovative clinical approaches to find gene therapy treatments for solid cancers.  One of the projects funded is a collaborative effort by McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Joseph Glorioso, MD, PhD, Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics in the School of Medicine with a secondary appointment in the Department of Human Genetics, of the University of Pittsburgh, and Gary Cohen, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania, who are working together on a vaccine for melanoma. Read More

McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Shilpa Sant, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, has received a 7-year R37 MERIT Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH, for her project entitled, “Three-dimensional organoid models to study breast cancer progression.” This grant is funded by the NCI under the Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative (TEC) Research Program that aims to support the development and characterization of state-of-the-art biomimetic tissue-engineered technologies for cancer research. The total funding for the first 5 years is $2.7 million. Read More

A new study from The Wistar Institute, in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh and others, revealed the mechanism implicated in the defective function of tumor-associated dendritic cells (DCs), a specialized type of immune cells that expose the antigens on their surface to activate the T cells. The new findings explain why DCs are not effective in executing a specialized process that is required for inducing antitumor immune responses and effective cancer immunotherapy. The work was published online in Nature Communications.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Valerian Kagan, PhD, Professor and Vice-Chairman in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Pitt, is a co-author on the paper. Read More

The work of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Marina Kameneva, PhD, Research Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Professor of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, and Director of the Artificial Blood Program at the McGowan Institute, and colleagues recently appeared in the May 31, 2017, online issue of the publication, Oncotarget.  Co-authors on the paper are Samer Tohme, Hamza O. Yazdani, Vikas Sud, Julie Goswami, Patricia Loughran, Hai Huang Richard L. Simmons, and Allan Tsung, all of the University of Pittsburgh. Read More

University of Pittsburgh and UPMC researchers are paving the way for genome-targeted treatments in pancreatic cancer, an especially deadly form of cancer with few existing therapeutic options, according to a pair of recent studies. Read More

A novel gene therapy using CRISPR genome editing technology effectively targets cancer-causing “fusion genes” and improves survival in mouse models of aggressive liver and prostate cancers, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers report in a study published online recently in Nature Biotechnology.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members George Michalopoulos, MD, PhD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, and Satdarshan Monga, MD, Endowed Research Chair in Experimental Pathology and the Vice-Chair of the Division of Experimental Pathology, Department of Pathology at Pitt, are co-authors on the study. Read More