About This Project

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

The overall objective of this project is to decipher the roles of protein biomarkers in cancer causation and spread. Recent discoveries show that differences in individual cancer cells determine patient response to treatment and length of survival. Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are potential biomarkers to identify these cellular differences.

In order to study RTKs in cancer cells, we have set ourselves the following milestones:

1. Development of protein chips to measure expression of 30 RTK proteins at a single cell level.
2. Generation of 30-RTK expression profiles of five commonly used breast cancer cell lines.
3. Identification of changes in 30-RTK expression profiles on in vitro treatment with commonly used cancer drugs.

The outcomes of this research will include the development of a new capability to measure 30-RTK expression in cancer cells, and identification of important RTK expression changes that might contribute to differences in cancer patient survival and response to treatment. Several biotech companies have shown interest in using this tool to develop better cancer therapies.

The project banner shows a heatmap of single cell protein expressions. Blue bars denote low or no expression, while red bars indicate high expression.

What is the significance of this project?

Cancer is the second leading cause of death. Overall 10-year survival from all cancers is less than 50%.

All cancers are different. Even within one patient, cancer cells differ from one-another. Although cancer patients frequently respond to chemotherapeutic drugs, tumor cells develop resistance due to changes in individual cancer cells. Therefore, future cancer therapies will be more personalized to address these differences. Targeted drugs such as Herceptin and Cetuximab are an important step in personalized cancer management.

Most targeted cancer therapeutics act on kinase pathways which are important regulators of cancer cell growth. Kinase pathways are activated by growth factor binding to cell surface molecules called receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). There are an estimated 60 RTKs expressed in the human proteome. In collaboration with Dr. Robert Wieder of UMDNJ-NJMS, we are developing a method to study several RTKs simultaneously in individual cancer cells. These studies will identify cells that have begun expressing multiple RTKs and therefore, are more difficult to destroy with drugs. The knowledge of these RTK expression patterns will enable development of powerful cancer diagnostic tests to identify patients likely to respond to targeted drugs and discovery of novel targeted medicines.

What are the goals of the project?

These funds will allow us to purchase antibodies and make previously unavailable microfluidic protein array chips with a capability to measure expression of 30 potential cancer drug targets at a single cell level. The funds will also be used to purchase scientific supplies and anti-cancer drugs to test against cells which will then be analyzed on the 30-plex protein chip. The funds will pay for the salary of one well qualified technician who will perform these experiments with guidance from Drs. Kumar and Wieder. The project is likely to last three-four months.