Clinical Project
Developing Diagnostic and Therapeutic Strategies to Reduce Hispanic Cancer Disparities Using Genetic, Molecular and Physiological Signatures from Mexican origin Cancer Patients.
The El Paso-Juarez Borderplex, and the University of Texas at El Paso
The El Paso/Juarez Borderplex presents a unique and critical ecosystem for studying salient aspects of Mexican American health, based on the: large diversity of Mexican American immigrant generations; wide variations in residential, social, and institutional contexts in which individuals live; the presence of some of the poorest rural “colonies” in the US and Mexico along with urban neighborhoods with high poverty as well as urban and suburban communities with high concentrations of Mexicans and Mexican Americans with high incomes; and complex commuting dynamics of Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and “health disparities” contribute to cancer initiation, development, incidence, prevalence, and severity. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) defines cancer health disparities as “adverse differences in cancer incidence, prevalence, death, survivorship, and burden of cancer or related health conditions that exist among specific population groups in the United States (1).” A key population characteristic is defined by race and ethnicity, and cancer exacts a marked detrimental effect on the Hispanic demographic. In fact, and as first reported in 2012, cancer is the leading cause of death for Hispanics in the US (2). persons from both sides of the border indicative of significant shared cultural, familial, and economic indices.The 成人头条 is a preeminent institution focusing on health and biomedical issues affecting the Mexican origin population in the Borderplex region.
The 成人头条 BBRC, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) program since 1992, is the cornerstone for biomedical studies and provides state-of-the-art analytical and experimental support.
The demographic characteristics of the El Paso/Juarez Borderplex, the advanced laboratory and analytical capabilities of the BBRC, and the outstanding working interactions between medical and academic partners, provide robust competitive advantages for developing basic, behavioral, and clinical research programs at 成人头条.
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Investigative Team: Jianying Zhang, M.D., Ph.D. (Principal Investigator): Dr. Zhang is a Professor in the 成人头条 Department of Biological Sciences. His research career has focused on the identification, characterization and evaluation of tumor-associated antigens as biomarkers in cancer detection, and he has expertise in the molecular, histopathological, immunological, and proteomic approaches proposed in this application for cancer biomarker research. Dr. Zhang will also serve as lead scientist on the liver cancer subproject under the Diagnostics arm of this project. Wen-Yee Lee, Ph.D. (Co-Investigator): Dr. Lee is an Associate Professor in the 成人头条 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and will serve as the lead scientist on the prostate cancer subproject of the Diagnostics arm of this proposal, and will hold primary responsibility for directing and managing all aspects of project implementation. She will work on all chemical analyses and will work with the Research Associate (RA) on the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urine, organization of experiments, interpretation of data, and publication of results. She will meet regularly with key personnel to track and facilitate progress and discuss the results of the research. Elisa Robles-Escajeda, Ph.D. (Contributor): Dr. Robles-Escajeda is an Assistant Professor of Research in the 成人头条 Department of Biological Sciences, with significant biomedical research experience. Dr. Robles-Escajeda is also a trained physician from Mexico. Her research has focused on the analysis of cancer tissue and the assessment of the drug sensitivity models, protein expression, and cell signaling in cancer cells. Dr. Robles-Escajeda will lead efforts to expand the 成人头条 Biorepository and coordinate efforts with local hospitals for the collection of clinical data. |
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References |
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1. National Cancer Institute. Cancer Disparities. 2018; Available from . 2. American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts and Figures for Hipsanics/ Latinos 2015-2017. 2015. |
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Projects |
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1. Wang X, Ma Y, Qiu C, Zhang X, Xing M, Varela A, Zhang JY. Anti-GNAS autoantibody as a biomarker in liver cancer. RCMI 2021 National Conference (Virtual Conference), March 24-26, 2021 2. “Analytical Chemistry in Environmental and Cancer Research”, Chemistry Department Seminar, University of Texas at El Paso, October 8, 2021. 3. “Dogs can do it. Can we do better?” Osmocosm - GLOBAL MACHINE OLFACTION TECHNOLOGIES CONFERENCE AT MIT. October 28-30, 2021. 4. Noriega Landa, E., Encerrado Manriquez, A., Lee, W.-Y., “Fatty acid biomarkers for prostate cancer diagnosis”, 成人头条 GradExpo, November 9, 2021, El Paso, TX. |
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Published Manuscripts |
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1. Ayala-Marin, Yoshira M., Alice H. Grant, Georgialina Rodriguez, and Robert A. Kirken. "Quadruple and Truncated Mek3 Mutants Identified from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Promote Degradation and Enhance Proliferation." International Journal of Molecular Sciences 22, no. 22 (2021): 12210. 2. Cambier, Linda, Kevin Stachelek, Martin Triska, Rima Jubran, Manyu Huang, Wuyin Li, Jianying Zhang, Jitian Li, and David Cobrinik. "Extracellular Vesicle-Associated Repetitive Element Dnas as Candidate Osteosarcoma Biomarkers." Scientific Reports 11, no. 1 (2021/01/08 2021): 94. 3. Grant, A. H., Y. M. Ayala-Marin, J. E. Mohl, E. Robles-Escajeda, G. Rodriguez, J. Dutil, and R. A. Kirken. "The Genomic Landscape of a Restricted All Cohort from Patients Residing on the U.S./Mexico Border." [In eng]. Int J Environ Res Public Health 18, no. 14 (Jul 9 2021). 4. Valenzuela, Paloma, Derrick Oaxaca, Teresa Di Desidero, Karla Parra, Georgialina Rodriguez, Marian Manciu, Giacomo Allegrini, et al. "Pharmacodynamic Biomarkers in Metronomic Chemotherapy: Multiplex Cytokine Measurements in Gastrointestinal Cancer Patients." Clinical and Experimental Medicine 21, no. 1 (Feb 2021): 149-59. 5. Xing, M., X. Wang, R. A. Kirken, L. He, and J. Y. Zhang. "Immunodiagnostic Biomarkers for Hepatocellular Carcinoma (Hcc): The First Step in Detection and Treatment." Int J Mol Sci 22, no. 11 (Jun 7 2021). 6. Guest, C., Harris, R., Sfanos, K. S., Trock, B., Lee, W.-Y., Gao, Q., Simons, J., Mershin, A., “Feasibility of Integrating Canine Olfaction with Chemical and Microbial Profiling of Urine to Detect Lethal Prostate Cancer”. PLOS ONE 16(2): e0245530 (Feb 2021). 7. Li J, Dai L, Huang M, Ma Y, Guo Z, Wang X, Li W, Zhang JY. “Immunoseroproteomic profifiling in autoantibody to ENO1 as potential biomarker in immunodiagnosis of osteosarcoma by serological proteome analysis (SERPA) approach”. OncoImmunology 2021 (Accepted) 8. Grant, A.H, Rodriguez G., Rodriguez A.C., Morán-Santibañez K., Lazarski A, Mohl JE, Robles-Escajeda E, Leung M-Y., and Kirken R.A. “An Inactivating JAK1 Pseudokinase Mutation can HiJAK Tyr Phosphorylation”. Nature Chemical Biology (Submitted). |