CLEVELAND – Three significant medical research projects to be conducted at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University have been awarded 2008 grants from the Pilot Award Core of the overall Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative (CTSC).
These 2008 grants are among seven local research projects to receive funding from the Pilot Award Core given by the CTSC, a collaboration between CWRU, UH Case Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic and MetroHealth Medical Center. Pamela Davis, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the CWRU School of Medicine, is the CTSC principal investigator. The group received a $64 million grant in September 2007 from the National Institutes of Health and the National Center for Research Resources and part of that grant was a charge to make these annual pilot awards to fund clinical studies in translational science.
The UHCMC funded research projects are:
• Henry B. Koon, M.D., Ireland Cancer Center of UH Case Medical Center (UHCMC) and assistant professor of Medicine at CWRU.
- • Amy Wilson-Delfosse, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Case Western Reserve University, who will be working with the Neurological Institute of UHCMC.
• James P. Basilion, Ph.D., associate professor of radiology and of biomedical engineering, Case Western Reserve University Schools of Medicine and Engineering, and the University Hospitals Case Medical Center Department of Radiology.
“We are pleased to have two key early clinical research studies in the areas of cancer, neurology and imaging/gastroenterology funded by the pilot award program,” says Phil Cola, VP of Research at UHCMC. “The goal of the CTSC is to improve the health of patients through patient-based research and these important studies will hopefully offer new approaches to treat melanoma and Parkinson’s, and to diagnose esophageal cancer through imaging methods.”
Dr. Koon’s research, titled “Identification of genomic lesions promoting nodal metastasis in malignant melanoma,” will look for genetic markers that can predict if melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, will spread through the lymph system. “Lymph node involvement is the strongest predictor for recurrence and long-term survival in melanoma,” said Dr. Koon.
“As normal cells change into cancer cells, genes are lost or duplicated to the cells,” said Dr. Koon. “By understanding which genetic deletions and additions predispose to the spread of melanoma to the lymph nodes, we may be able to develop better tests to predict who is at risk of relapse after surgery.”
Working with Dr. Koon on the project are Dr. Kord Honda of the UHCMC dermatology department, and Dr. Tom Laframboise of the CWRU genetics department, who are both members of the Melanoma Program of the Ireland Cancer Center at UHCMC.
Dr. Wilson-Delfosse’s research project is titled “Establishment of CTSC Parkinson’s Disease Phenotypic and Genotypic Registry. Co-investigators are David Riley, M.D., director of the Movement Disorders Center in the UHCMC Neurological Institute; Steven Gunzler, M.D., UH neurologist, and Shu Chen, Ph.D., of the CWRU Department of Pathology.
In this project, the researchers will collect histories of patients with Parkinson’s disease, as well as blood samples for genetic information. The registry will be anonymous and the information will be shared with Parkinson’s researchers around the nation.
The investigators will begin by studying a gene that when mutated is extremely important to the development of Parkinson’s disease. “The gene produces a protein called leucine rich repeat kinase 2, which is thought to be the most important gene in Parkinson’s research right now,” said Dr. Wilson-Delfosse. Through the registry, researchers will be able to compare disease progression with genetics.
“This work will help researchers here and elsewhere develop therapeutic options that can potentially help patients with Parkinson’s,” said Dr. Wilson-Delfosse.
Dr. Riley cites several important findings that may result from research with the registry. “This is a critically important grant project because it may contribute to the worldwide understanding of the influence of heredity on Parkinson's; contribute to knowledge about individual manifestations of Parkinson’s, for example, answering why some patients have a lot of tremor but others none; allow Drs. Wilson-Delfosse and Chen to uncover important steps in the disease process, and allow other investigators around the world to perform research on Parkinson’s using the cultured cells developed in Cleveland.”
The third CTSC project involving UH researchers is “Molecular Imaging of Dysplasia in Barrett’s Esophagus,” directed by Dr. Basilion. His co-investigator is Amitabh Chak, M.D., a gastroenterologist at UH Case Medical Center and professor of medicine and oncology at CWRU.
According to Dr. Chak, the current strategy to diagnose and prevent esophageal cancer is inadequate because doctors are unable to reliably identify pre-cancerous areas and early cancers when they are performing endoscopy to survey Barrett's esophagus, which is an irritation of the lining of the esophagus caused by stomach acid. The condition carries an increased risk of cancer of the esophagus.
“A molecular imaging method that was able to reliably highlight areas of high grade dysplasia and early cancer in Barrett's esophagus during endoscopy would improve the detection of early cancers and allow doctors to cure the dysplastic areas with endoscopic techniques. It would also avoid unnecessary radical surgery,” Dr. Chak said.