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Clinical Research

Selected projects

Redox manipulation of iron to improve glioblastoma therapy: A phase 1 trial.

In this NIH R21-funded phase I trial, Bryan Allen MBA, MD, PhD and his team will test to see if adding ferumoxytol (an iron replacement) and pharmacologic ascorbate (vitamin C) is safe when combined with the standard treatment when given to patients.

Mitochondria electron transport chain complexes adaptative responses to cellular stress.

This five-year NIH R01 grant affords Corrine Griguer PhD’s lab the chance to further their research into understanding how radioresistance develops in the treatment of glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive brain tumor. Their research will explore how the electron transport chain super complexes affect GBM resistance to radiation and provide therapies to treat radio-resistant tumors.

Targeting diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma: exploring the effects of ascorbate.

Michelle Howard PhD, will use this KL2 Career Development Award to improve treatment for diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG), a pediatric tumor with a 100% fatality rate. The Howard lab will apply their efforts to learn if high doses of vitamin C are toxic to the DIPG tumor to allow for increased radiation sensitivity. The next aim of this grant is to test if vitamin C protects the normal healthy brain tissue surrounding the tumor from radiation.

Overcoming immunotherapy resistance using oxygen-entrapping materials.

Awarded by the V Foundation for Cancer Research to James Byrne MD, PhD. This research will advance the progress of gas-entrapping materials (GeMs) for the treatment of cancer. In particular, GeMs will be created to deploy oxygen to sarcoma cancers in an effort to offset tumor hypoxia associated with their rapid growth. By providing the hypoxic tumors with oxygen, therapies like immunotherapy will likely be more effective. Previous research by the Byrne lab included developing GeMs entrapping carbon monoxide.