Description of Research Expertise

Improved therapeutic response via metabolic modulation
Development of a safe and reproducible method to selectively acidify and deenergize human cancers. Specifically, we seek to employ the natural tendency of cancers to convert glucose to lactate as a method for selective intracellular acidification, which is known to potentiate tumor response to chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hyperthermia, and photodynamic therapy. In vivo 31P and 1H MRS demonstrated that human cancer xenografts such as melanoma, breast, prostate, ovarian and glioma in immunosuppressed mice treated with metabolic modulators exhibit a sustained and tumor-selective decrease in pH, bioenergetics and increase in lactate and subsequent sensitization to chemo- and radiation therapy.

Metabolic Biomarkers of Response of lymphomas
Detection of metabolic biomarkers of the response of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and diffuse large B cell lymphoma to Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) and mTOR inhibitors. Changes in tumor metabolism occur earlier during BTK and mTOR inhibition and are more reliable predictors of sustained response than conventional methods based on tumor volume. Lymphomas are currently staged by FDG PET/CT imaging, and therapeutic response is measured mainly by changes in tumor volume. However, kinase inhibitors are often more cytostatic than cytotoxic producing delayed changes in tumor volume.