Electrical & Biomedical Engineering Professor Bahram Parvin has received a $2.2 million, five-year award from the National Cancer Institute to develop a new cancer therapy.

The next generation of cancer therapeutics likely will leverage the “normal interactions” within a glandular structure, leading to therapy with reduced toxicity and probability of tumor recurrence. In a gland structure, such as the mammary gland, cancer develops and spreads by epithelial cells by recruiting the supporting cells that don’t become malignant.

One of the supporting cells in the mammary gland is fibroblasts, and in breast cancer, epithelial cells often acquire and hijack the molecular machinery of fibroblasts and transform normal fibroblasts into cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). Parvin’s Lab has shown that by reprogramming the tumor microenvironment with the normal signaling (e.g., cellular conversations) between fibroblasts and epithelial cells, the growth of tumor cells is suppressed by means of cancer cell death, and CAFs are reverted into their normal state. This normal conversation is elucidated by teasing out biochemical signaling that takes place between normal epithelial and fibroblast cells.

“The potential impact of this therapy also is being explored for other glandular cancer types through collaborative efforts with the Pennington Cancer Institute,” Parvin said.

The award also will include technology development for refining targeted macromolecule and high throughput imaging of tumor organoids by constructing predictive models. In addition, the project will utilize the University of Nevada, Reno's core expertise for proteomics and animal facilities led by David Quilici, director of the Nevada Proteomics Center, and Benjamin Weigler, director of Animal Resources & campus attending veterinarian. Other collaborators include Professor Saori Furuta, Jinsong Chen, Ruben Dagda and Tin Nguyen.