2008 Woodie Awards
Could pond scum hold the key to curing cancer?
Tamar Campbell
Issue date: 8/25/08 Section: Pulse
As the desperate search for a cure for cancer continues, researchers at UIC's College of Pharmacy have begun to look for the cure in interesting places. UIC researchers have teamed up with Ohio State University, Research Triangle Institute, and Bristol-Myers Squibb in order to see if pond scum or plants from tropical rainforests hold the key to finding new therapies.
The group was given an $8 million grant funded by the National Cancer Institute, and UIC will be using approximately $3 million in order to do research to attempt to discover biological therapies for cancer.
Current cancer treatments include the popularly known chemotherapy and radiation, but they also include biological therapies, or biological response modifiers (BRMs). BRMs are antibodies, cytokines, and other immune system substances that are made in a laboratory and used to change the interaction between the body's immune system and cancer cells. BRMs aim to either boost the immune system by either making cancer cells easier to recognize by the immune system, by stopping cancer cell growth, by changing the growth patterns of cancerous cells, or by preventing the spread of cancer cells from one part of the body to another.
Sadly, none of the current therapies are able to guarantee remission, and each type of treatment has varying degrees of horrible side effects, making it incredibly important to continue looking for new drug therapies and possible treatments.
According to Jimmy Orjala, an assistant professor of pharmocognosy at UIC and the leading investigator, "[the] goal is to discover naturally occurring anticancer lead compounds that will be more effective than currently available cancer chemotherapeutic agents." Orjala hopes to accomplish this goal by collecting small samples of pond scum from places all over the Midwest and growing them in a lab. Pond scum, also known as algae, or the more technical term, cyanobacteria, is found in nearly all types of habitats: soil, rocks, and both fresh and saltwater.
The group was given an $8 million grant funded by the National Cancer Institute, and UIC will be using approximately $3 million in order to do research to attempt to discover biological therapies for cancer.
Current cancer treatments include the popularly known chemotherapy and radiation, but they also include biological therapies, or biological response modifiers (BRMs). BRMs are antibodies, cytokines, and other immune system substances that are made in a laboratory and used to change the interaction between the body's immune system and cancer cells. BRMs aim to either boost the immune system by either making cancer cells easier to recognize by the immune system, by stopping cancer cell growth, by changing the growth patterns of cancerous cells, or by preventing the spread of cancer cells from one part of the body to another.
Sadly, none of the current therapies are able to guarantee remission, and each type of treatment has varying degrees of horrible side effects, making it incredibly important to continue looking for new drug therapies and possible treatments.
According to Jimmy Orjala, an assistant professor of pharmocognosy at UIC and the leading investigator, "[the] goal is to discover naturally occurring anticancer lead compounds that will be more effective than currently available cancer chemotherapeutic agents." Orjala hopes to accomplish this goal by collecting small samples of pond scum from places all over the Midwest and growing them in a lab. Pond scum, also known as algae, or the more technical term, cyanobacteria, is found in nearly all types of habitats: soil, rocks, and both fresh and saltwater.
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