Ronny Drapkin, MD, PhD, Daniel Heller, PhD, Ie-Ming Shih, MD, PhD, Rugang Zhang, PhD

About Project

CONSORTIUM GRANT

Tina’s Wish is honored to present its second Consortium Grant to this cutting edge team of researchers who will collaborate together for the next three years

INTEGRATION OF ADVANCED GENOMIC AND BIOENGINEERING APPROACHES FOR EARLY DETECTION AND PREVENTION OF OVARIAN CANCER

PROJECT SUMMARY

Ovarian cancer is responsible for the deaths of nearly 125,000 women worldwide each year and the 5-year survival rate has not improved in decades. The poor survival rate reflects the absence of effective methods for early detection and prevention, especially in the high-risk population. We have assembled a multi-disciplinary team with diverse expertise to address those unmet medical needs. It is now generally accepted that many ovarian cancers arise in the tips of the fallopian tubes. Our approach focuses on analyzing fluids near the fallopian tubes for the presence of genetic and protein biomarkers indicative of the disease. We also aim to develop the compounds that might be able to eradicate the early tumor-initiating cells that develop in fallopian tubes.

The first aim of our proposal is to combine DNA sequencing of early fallopian tube cancers with pap smears to see if a traditional pap smear can detect cells or DNA shed by these early cancers. The second aim is to develop a microscopic detector that can be implanted near the fallopian tube to monitor the presence of ovarian cancer biomarkers. Our final aim will look at whether BET inhibitors can eradicate cancer-initiating cells in the fallopian tubes of animal models that recapitulate the human disease.