Researcher Spotlight: Philip Trackman, PhD

Dr. Philip Trackman is a Professor and the Director of Graduate Programs in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. Dr. Trackman is also an important member of the Oral Cancer Research Initiative (OCRI) and is currently investigating the molecular mechanisms of the connective tissue enzyme, lysyl oxidase, and its potential therapeutic effects in oral cancer.

Dr. Trackman became interested in cancer research in 1990, after cloning lysyl oxidase for the very first time. This enzyme family  has tumor inhibitory properties and also enhances tissue fibrosis and metastasis. In the context of the OCRI, Dr. Trackman is working to investigate the two therapeutic opportunities which these findings suggest. His first aim is to explore how to inhibit the harmful activity of the active enzymes, while taking advantage of the tumor growth inhibitory activity of the lysyl oxidase propeptide. The lysyl oxidase propeptide was shown by Dr. Trackman’s lab in 2004 to be responsible for the tumor growth inhibitory properties of lysyl oxidase. His lab has confirmed this in animal models of both breast and prostate cancer, and recently also in oral cancer. Dr. Trackman collaborated on this project with Research Assistant Professor Dr. Manish Bais, who is also an OCRI investigator.

Dr. Trackman’s ongoing research will establish the extent to which new and powerful lysyl oxidase family enzyme activity inhibitors can block human oral cancer tumor growth and/or metastasis in mice. This work is funded by the OCRI’s Etiology and Pathogenesis of Oral Cancer Affinity Research Collaborative (ARC) as a part of Boston University’s Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research.  In addition, modifications to the structure of the lysyl oxidase propeptide are underway with the goal of enhancing its tumor growth inhibitory properties, and also to identify its most important binding partners in its ability to inhibit tumor growth. This research is supported by funding from the NIH.