From Mighty Mice to Chasing Viruses: Sniffing Out Cancer
A five-part series on medical research at BU
Boston University students and faculty are making their mark in the world of medical research, striving to reduce memory loss in the elderly, fighting disease, or exploring the intricacies of DNA. The Charles River and Medical Campuses are humming with scholarly inquiry in the medical sciences.
This week’s series looks at some of the medical research stories from the last year and a half. Monday’s installment focused on how BU professors are exploring the link between genetics and memory loss in old age in “Mighty Mice.” Tuesday’s story explored fighting disease in “Virus Chaser.” Today’s is about the links between genetics and disease. Check back tomorrow for “Fast Track DNA.”
Sniffing Out Cancer
Genetic changes in nose cells may warn of a deadly disease
By Chris Berdik
Every day, about 450 Americans die from lung cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. One way to reduce that number, says Jerome Brody, a School of Medicine professor of medicine, is to find the disease earlier. Brody, along with coinvestigator Avrum Spira, a MED assistant professor of medicine, thinks he may know how to do that, based on something that the nose knows. The researchers believe that certain genetic changes in the cells that line the nose could be telltale signs of cancer.
The promise of this research led BU’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) to award Brody and Spira one of three spring 2006 Ignition Awards, each about $50,000. Four times a year, with the help of a five-person committee of senior venture capitalists from the Boston area, OTD selects Ignition Award winners from applications submitted by BU professors or students whose research is ready to make the leap from the laboratory to the business world.
“The Ignition Awards program exists to recognize research that will someday translate into commercially available technologies, products, or treatments,” says Stanford Willie, executive director of OTD. “This first batch of winning projects represents diverse and potentially lifesaving applications in health and medicine.”
“Sniffing Out Cancer” originally appeared on BU Today on July 17, 2006.