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Columbia’s biomedical research building is designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox . The building will feature unique collaboration corners between research spaces that will help facilitate spontaneous interactions and idea-sharing among scientists. Biophilic elements such as green walls of living plants and the extensive use of natural, renewable materials will help reduce work fatigue and provide health and environmental benefits.

Credit: Jenny Gorman

For more information about the building, visit “ Columbia University Begins Construction On New York City’s First All-Electric Biomedical Research Building .”

Cancer Center experts present research at national conference

Ovarian and blood cancer trials highlight uc’s asco abstracts.

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center experts will present research at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting May 31 to June 4 in Chicago.

Platform-predicted treatment leads to longer survival for patients with ovarian cancer

Thomas Herzog, MD. Photo/University of Cincinnati Cancer Center.

After an initial response to chemotherapy, many patients with ovarian cancer encounter a period of resistance to therapy that can lead to tumor regrowth. 

The Cancer Center’s Thomas Herzog, MD, said this resistance is believed to be partially caused by cancer stem cells (CSCs) that rebuild and repair tumors after chemotherapy. In a recent trial, researchers used a diagnostic tool called ChemoID that determines how sensitive CSCs and bulk tumor cells are to various cancer-killing therapies.

“The goal of the test is to find the most effective chemotherapeutic agents that would reduce CSCs in ovarian cancer, thereby limiting recurrent disease potential to help improve patients’ outcomes,” said Herzog, a University of Cincinnati Cancer Center member, the Paul and Carolyn Flory Professor in Gynecologic Oncology in the UC College of Medicine, and director of UC Health’s Gynecologic Cancer Disease Center. “ChemoID provides a prioritized list of effective and ineffective chemotherapies after taking a tissue biopsy of the tumor.”

In a multisite clinical trial, patients with recurrent platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian cancer were randomized to have their chemotherapy regimens selected through the ChemoID platform or by their physician’s best choice. 

Patients in the physician-choice arm had an overall response rate to their chemotherapy of 5%, while those in the ChemoID arm had a 55% overall response rate. The median progression-free survival, or time after treatment when the disease does not get worse, was three months for the physician-choice group and 11 months for the ChemoID group.

Moving forward, Herzog said a larger trial will be needed to validate these results.

Herzog will present the oral abstract  Relationship of cancer stem cell functional assay and objective response rate of patients with recurrent platinum-resistant ovarian cancer in a randomized trial  June 1 from 8-9:30 a.m. Co-authors include Thomas Krivak, John Diaz, Scott Lentz, Stephen Bush, Navya Nair, Nadim Bou Zgheib, Camille Gunderson Jackson, Abhijit Barve, Seth Lirette, Candace Howard, Jagan Valluri, Krista Denning and Pier Paolo Claudio. 

Herzog will also present the poster  Endometrial cancer (EC) by ERBB2 amplification (ERBB2amp) status: Differences in molecular subtypes, ancestry, and real-world outcomes  June 3 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Co-authors include Natalie Danziger, Douglas Lin, Julia Elvin, Andrew Kelly, Ryon Graf, Robert Coleman, Bhavana Pothuri, Ramez Eskander, Julia Quintanilha and Brian Slomovitz. 

Trial tests drug’s ability to overcome resistance in lymphoma

The Cancer Center’s John Byrd, MD, will present information on a Phase 1 trial testing a new treatment for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) or chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) whose cancer has returned or stopped responding to treatment (relapsed/refractory).

On average, about a quarter of patients with NHL or CLL will relapse by 24 months. Each patient is unique, and the relapse can occur with different mutations, including a MALT mutation that promotes survival and proliferation of blood cancers.

Cancer cells can also sometimes develop resistance to currently-used drugs targeting other enzymes, creating the need for innovative new therapies. 

The trial drug, ONO-7018, targets a protein called MALT1. Preclinical data showed the drug inhibits MALT1 activity and exhibited an antitumor effect with a good safety profile, giving it therapeutic potential to be effective and overcome resistance.

Erin Hertlein, PhD, left, and John Byrd, right, look at data in the Leukemia and Drug Development Lab. Photo/UC Foundation.

In the trial, patients will be given ONO-7018 orally in 21-day treatment cycles. The first group of up to 48 patients will be enrolled to receive increasing doses until the maximum tolerated dose is identified. Once this occurs, a second group of up to 60 patients will be enrolled to receive the optimal dose identified.

“We are excited to have this exciting new agent, ONO-7018, available for our patients with NHL and CLL who have exhausted available effective therapies available for their disease,” said Byrd, Gordon and Helen Hughes Taylor Professor and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the UC College of Medicine. “MALT1 is an exciting target across all B-cell malignancies and potentially for other types of cancer.” 

The trial, which is currently recruiting patients, will primarily assess the drug’s safety and tolerability.

Byrd will present the poster  A phase I, first-in-human study of ONO-7018 in patients with relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia  June 3 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Co-authors include Pierluigi Porcu, Thomas Sundermeier, Takashi Nakada, Takeyuki Iwata, Sergio Prados and Leo Gordon. 

For more information on this and other blood cancer clinical trials at the Cancer Center, contact Michelle Marcum at [email protected] or 513-584-6628.

Research examines link between sleep disturbance and cancer-related cognitive impairment

Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI), often called “chemo brain,” affects approximately 75% of individuals with cancer.

The Cancer Center’s cognitive clinical registry found that more than 83% of patients report experiencing sleep disturbances, leading researchers to ask the question of how sleep disturbances and sleep apnea contribute to CRCI.

“CRCI is complex and overlaps with risk factors associated with non-cancer cognitive impairment and neurodegenerative disease,” said Alique Topalian, PhD, a research scientist in Survivorship and Supportive Services at the Cancer Center. “Sleep is central to maintaining brain health. Understanding the relationship between sleep and cancer is important for mitigating CRCI and neurodegenerative disease.”  

In patients who do not have cancer, impaired sleep contributes to executive dysfunction and enlarged brain ventricles, which disrupt cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) flow and drainage of waste material from the brain, Topalian said. The team hypothesized this same process may be a contributing factor to CRCI.

“Reduced removal of toxic byproducts of normal brain metabolism and inflammation that is induced by cancer and its treatment could explain one mechanism of action for CRCI and the increased risk of neurodegenerative disease in cancer survivors,” Topalian said.

A Cancer Center team will present findings on how sleep disturbances and sleep apnea affect cancer-related cognitive impairment. Photo/iStock/FG Trade.

The research team analyzed data from 135 patients in the cognitive clinic’s clinical registry and found sleep apnea and sleep disturbances to be highly prevalent in CRCI. 

“There was a statistical trend toward a relationship between sleep disturbance severity in CRCI and enlarged ventricles,” Topalian said. “Sleep disturbances did not correlate with measures of cognitive impairment. However, ventricular size was significantly associated with impaired processing speed, sustained attention/inhibitory control and semantic fluency.”

Topalian said the novel finding of enlarged brain ventricles in these patients suggests treatment aimed at improving sleep disturbances may help regulate disrupted CSF flow, which could potentially improve CRCI cognitive symptoms.

“We are pursuing fundings for a CPAP and sleep health treatment trial for CRCI patients to investigate how treatment impacts cognitive, imaging and serum markers of CSF flow,” she said.

Additionally, the research team plans to form an ongoing translational working group to expand research on this topic.

Research assistant Sophie Kushman will present the poster “ Sleep apnea and glymphatic dysfunction as a mediator of executive dysfunction and neurodegenerative risk in cancer related cognitive impairment (CRCI) ” during the Symptom Science and Palliative Care session June 3 from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Abstract co-authors are Topalian and Rhonna Shatz, DO.

Unique approach aids elementary science education

As the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center is tackling how to reduce the suffering and mortality of cancer in the community today, it is also testing unique ways to encourage the next generation of cancer researchers.

William Barrett, MD, co-director of the Cancer Center, professor and chair of Radiation Oncology in UC’s College of Medicine, and medical director of the Barrett Center for Cancer Prevention, Treatment and Research, said elementary students, particularly those in socially and financially disadvantaged settings, encounter barriers to effective scientific learning. 

With an aim to overcome these barriers, which include maintaining interest, concentration and focus, Barrett and his colleagues implemented a scientific educational program for children attending an urban community center’s after-school program. 

During the program’s activities, five students at a time complete three-minute sessions at tutoring stations on human physiology, astronomy, geography, geology and cancer led by medical students or residents. Meanwhile, another group of five students goes through three-minute basketball drills with a coach on the court. 

Cancer Center volunteers developed a scientific educational program that alternated basketball drills with educational stations at a community center's after-school program. Photo/Nik Shuliahin/Unsplash.

The groups alternate between basketball and tutoring until all students have participated in all five drills and tutoring stations. Then the kids are quizzed on what they learned, and an end-of-practice scrimmage begins with a score based on the quiz results.

“Within weeks, nearly every child could list the planets of the solar system in order; calculate  their pulse and explain its importance; list the most common symptoms of the most prevalent cancers; correctly identify continents, oceans, countries and states on maps; and explain the origin of volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis,” Barrett and his coauthors wrote in the abstract.

The alternating of physical exertion with learning appears to maintain interest, focus and concentration, and the approach could be widely applied to students from diverse backgrounds.

Barrett is first author on the abstract  Defeating cancer through education, prevention, and youth athletics.  Sherwin Anderson, Andrew Frankart, Samuel Thompson and William Mackey are co-authors.

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The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction.  Next Lives Here.

Featured photo at top of ovarian cancer cells. Photo/OGPhoto/iStock.

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Breaking news, fauci claims he was not ‘involved’ in nih grant for wuhan lab, denies gain-of-function research occurred.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told Congress he was not “involved” in a controversial grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) — and still denied that gain-of-function research occurred there, according to newly released congressional testimony.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released transcripts Friday of a two-day interview with the ex-Biden White House COVID czar held in January, during which Fauci said “more than 100 times” that he “ did not recall ” information about the grant process, reasons for US pandemic restrictions and other details of the outbreak that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

“It sort of just appeared. I don’t recall,” Fauci said of the six-feet social distancing mandate imposed on federal agencies, businesses and schools.

“Just an empiric decision that wasn’t based on data or even data that could be accomplished,” he added of the federal emergency guidance that wasn’t dropped until August 2022 , two and half years after the start of the pandemic.

Fauci also refused to admit that mask mandates for children as young as 2 years old had led to widespread learning loss and speech development issues in children — or that he had flip-flopped on that recommendation .

“I didn’t flip-flop,” he said at one point, adding later that there were “conflicting studies” on masks and their efficacy was still “up in the air.”

“Was there ever a cost-benefit analysis done on the unintended consequences of masking kids versus the protection that it would give them?” a committee staff member asked him at another point.

“Not to my knowledge,” Fauci replied.

He also refused to walk back any of his statements on the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 — and defended President Biden’s remarks during a CNN town hall that year claiming the jab would totally protect people from hospitalization and death.

In an accompanying 17-page memo , committee staff for the majority highlighted other evasions, saying it was “deeply concerning that Dr. Fauci is entirely unaware of the grants he is personally approving.”

Explosive emails released last week by the House COVID subcommittee also revealed Fauci’s senior adviser, Dr. David Morens, was intimately involved in reversing the suspension of EcoHealth Alliance’s grant for risky Wuhan research — and kept his boss in the loop through a “ secret back channel .”

Fauci testified that before the pandemic he did not “recall any specific interaction” and even after the outbreak, he did not have “back-and-forth discussions” with EcoHealth president Dr. Peter Daszak — whom Morens has said was his “best friend.”

But the emails show Morens telling Daszak that Fauci had expressed “concern” about the EcoHealth grant and indicated that they both were evading Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests about it by communicating with private email accounts.

“Peter, from Tony’s numerous recent comments to me, and from what Francis has been vocal about over the past 5 days, they are trying to protect you, which also protects their own reputations,” Morens wrote to Daszak on Oct. 25, 2021, five days after an National Institutes of Health (NIH) official disclosed to Congress that EcoHealth failed to abide by the terms of its grant for WIV.

“I had face to face meetings with Tony to discuss science issues,” Morens wrote in another Nov. 18, 2021, email to a former NIH colleague. “He asked how Peter was doing, as he often does, and seemed to commiserate with him to a degree.”

The Manhattan-based EcoHealth Alliance received millions of US taxpayer dollars and conducted gain-of-function research at the WIV, according to the COVID subcommittee’s investigation and the testimony of officials at NIH , the agency that oversees NIAID.

Unlike NIH principal deputy director Tabak and now-NIAID director Dr. Hugh Auchincloss, Fauci denied that the risky experiments took place under the “operative definition” of the term.

“It is not gain-of-function of concern that is associated with the regulatory operative definition of gain-of-function,” he testified.

He also worried aloud about the public backlash if he admitted to it: “[I]f I say yes, then, ‘Ah, yes, he says it was gain-of-function.’”

Even under the 2017 policy definition to which Fauci was referring, known as the “Framework for Guiding Funding Decisions about Proposed Research Involving Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogens,” scientific experts and former federal officials have said the Wuhan research involved gain-of-function experiments.

“[Potential Pandemic Pathogen Care and Oversight] policy does not limit coverage to pathogens ‘known to infect humans’ and ‘shown to be transmissible in humans,’” said Dr. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University.

“Fauci’s funding of gain-of-function research and enhanced potential pandemic pathogens research in Wuhan in 2015 to 2019 repeatedly and flagrantly violated US-government policies enacted to protect the public from lab-generated pandemics,” he added.

Former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins used the same policy framework to deny the research occurred when he  testified before the subcommittee  in January.

Ebright said both perjured themselves in their testimonies.

The US barred WIV from receiving further federal funding last year, and EcoHealth has since been suspended as a grantee and proposed for debarment for failing to defend its repeated claims that it did not fund research that “likely violated protocols of the NIH regarding biosafety.”

NIH principal deputy director Dr. Lawrence Tabak has said the “sequences of the viruses” from the grant — “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence” — were “genetically very distant” from COVID-19.

However, other EcoHealth grant proposals have since been identified as “ smoking gun ” evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered in a Wuhan lab.

In early drafts of one unfunded proposal, known as Project DEFUSE, Daszak sought to “ downplay ” the involvement of Chinese researchers.

Fauci will appear Monday before the House COVID subcommittee for a public hearing about his handling of the US pandemic response, his awareness of the EcoHealth grants and his potential evasions of federal record-keeping requirements.

Two witnesses to appear before the panel — Daszak and Morens — have opened themselves up to criminal liability, according to its chairman, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), based on their false statements to lawmakers.

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• IRD Strategic Plan Prepares DHS for Future Homeland Security Challenges

News Release: Innovation, Research and Development Strategic Plan Prepares DHS for Future Homeland Security Challenges

For immediate release s&t public affairs , 202-286-9047.

Plan will prepare DHS to meet emerging technological needs and maximize strategic impact.

WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the first-ever department-wide Innovation, Research and Development (IRD) Strategic Plan , articulating key investment goals over the next seven fiscal years. Developed at the direction of Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the Strategic Plan serves as a blueprint for DHS to keep pace with technology by leveraging research and development to address homeland security challenges.

“This visionary roadmap, informed by scientific efforts, will empower DHS and its components to reduce risks to the homeland through optimized innovation, research and development investments,” said Dr. Dimitri Kusnezov, DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology. “The technologies resulting from our IRD investments play a critical role in equipping the Department’s front-line operators with necessary tools to outpace our adversaries and enhance our preparedness and response capabilities.”

In 2022, Secretary Mayorkas tasked the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) with examining DHS’s execution of research and development (R&D), including through developing a coordinated strategy focused on areas for long-term Departmental research. The resulting IRD Strategic Plan will help the Department and its partners make coordinated, integrated investments. In addition to capturing current IRD efforts already underway – compiling data from every DHS component and office – it provides an overview of complementary efforts led by federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, nongovernmental and private sector entities.

From this analysis of common research fields, the plan highlights eight Strategic Priority Research Areas (SPRAs) and future capabilities that DHS needs across its missions. The SPRAs will enhance the coordination of R&D across DHS while giving a demand signal for industry, interagency, academic, and international communities about future partnership opportunities. The Strategic Priority Research Areas for Fiscal Years 2024-2030 are:

• Advanced Sensing – next-generation sensor capabilities to provide enhanced detection performance against a broad spectrum of threats.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Autonomous Systems – automated technologies to provide predictions, recommendations, or decisions across a wide variety of operating environments, including means to deal with adversarial AI.
• Biotechnology – augmented capabilities to predict, detect, and defend against current and emerging bioagents and biotechnologies of concern.
• Climate Change – technologies to strengthen climate adaptation/resilience, improve equity, protect critical infrastructure, and reduce carbon emissions.
• Communications and Networking – enhanced communications and networking capabilities, while maintaining security and resiliency.
• Cybersecurity – enhanced resiliency, protection, and operational assurance across data, software, hardware, and communications networks.
• Data Integration, Analytics, Modeling and Simulation – enhanced, integrated data ecosystems, analytics, and modeling to enable better and more accurate data-driven insights, predictions, and decisions.
• Digital Identity and Trust – enhanced capabilities to establish and verify both individuals’ identities and the validity, integrity, and privacy of associated data.

In collaboration with stakeholders from across DHS, S&T is advancing implementation of the Strategic Plan by developing IRD investment roadmaps for each SPRA. These roadmaps will inform the Department’s budget process for FY 2027 and beyond. 

More information about the IRD Strategic Plan and its priorities can be found at DHS IRD Strategic Plan FY24-30 | Homeland Security .

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