Reinhard Group Receives NIH Award to Probe Underlying Mechanisms of the Abnormal Behavior of EGFR in Cancer Cells
Professor Bjoern Reinhard and his group have received an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health, “Illuminating Dynamic Receptor Clustering in the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Signal Transduction Pathway Using Plasmon Coupling.” The goal of their research is to use near-field interactions between individual nanoparticle labels to probe the underlying mechanisms of the abnormal behavior of epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) in cancerous cells. Because growth factors are overexpressed in many cancers, a molecular understanding of the EGFR activation mechanism will provide new opportunities for early cancer diagnosis and lead the way to developing efficient anti-cancer therapeutic strategies. The 5-year award is valued at nearly $2 million
Professor Reinhard joined the Department of Chemistry in 2007 and became a faculty member of the Photonics Center in 2008. He and his group conduct interdisciplinary research in the fields of chemistry, nanoscience, photonics, and biological materials.