Tags: 4


Researchers publish breakthrough in reversing leukemia

Today in the journal Nature, a UGA research team led by Takahiro Ito published important new work that identifies a new drug target for the two most common types of myeloid leukemia, including a way to turn back the most aggressive form of the disease: By blocking a protein called BCAT1, the researchers were able to stop cancer cell growth in mice and human blood samples from leukemia patients. The BCAT1 protein activates the metabolism of a…

two men in a lab with white coats
Bacterium research presents a pathway to potential new treatment

A common bacterium that more than half of people have in their gut can use hydrogen gas present in the gastrointestinal tract to inject a cancer-causing toxin into otherwise healthy cells, according to a recently published study led by Franklin College researchers: The bacterium's reliance on hydrogen presents a pathway to potential new treatment and preventive measures in fighting gastric cancers, which kill more than 700,000 people per year,…


CCRC-Franklin researchers target cancer stem cells

A new paper by research scientists at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center focuses on cancer stem cells: the research team demonstrates that the sugar molecule, made by an enzyme known as GnT-V, regulates the development of a particular subset of cancerous cells known as cancer stem cells. Much like normal stem cells that sustain organs and tissues, cancer stem cells can self-renew, and their cellular offspring clump together to form tumors…


Chemistry researchers enhance chemotherapy with nanoparticles

As science moves forward, disease treatment regimes become more refined, safer and more effective. Great news from Shanta Dhar's research lab in the department of chemistry: Dhar, assistant professor of chemistry in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and Rakesh Pathak, a postdoctoral researcher in Dhar's lab, constructed a modified version of cisplatin called Platin-M, which is designed to overcome this resistance by attacking…


Study deepens the connection between hypoxia and cancer growth

There are a number of species that have a low to negligible probability of developing cancer. These include squirrels, turtles, the mole rat and certain whales. The reasons why are linked to these species' ability to adapt their oxygen demand when faced with a low oxygen supply. That connection itself goes back to a discover by the great physiologist and Nobel laureate Otto Warburg, who hypothesized in 1924 that, whatever the secondary causes of…

Dhar in her lab
New drug formulation for cancer treatment

Great new research from the department of chemistry: The drug dichloroacetate, or DCA, was touted as a cure-all, but after years of work, scientists are still searching for ways to make the unique treatment as effective as possible. Now, researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered a new way to deliver this drug that may one day make it a viable treatment for numerous forms of cancer. They published their findings in the American…


Discovery about little-studied protein holds promise for drug treatments

More evidence that the front lines of research on life-threatening diseases are right here on the UGA campus and in the Franklin College. Insightful new work from a research group lead by faculty member Natarajan Kannan of the Institute for Bioinformatics and the department of biochemistry and molecular biology: Enter protein kinases. Like specialized traffic signals, this huge class of proteins is critical for many aspects of cell communication…


$4.1 million from NIH to UGA researchers

More terrific news from Franklin College scientists in the CCRC: Ovarian and pancreatic cancers are among the most deadly, not because they are impossible to cure, but because they are difficult to find. There are no screening tests that can reliably detect their presence in early stages, and most diagnoses are made after the disease has already spread to lymph nodes and vital organs. But University of Georgia cancer researchers Karen Abbott and…


New study links hypoxia to cancer growth

A research team led by Ying Xu, Regents-Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and professor of bioinformatics and computational biology in the Franklin College, has published some compeeling new findings on the growth of cancer cells: Low oxygen levels in cells may be a primary cause of uncontrollable tumor growth in some cancers, according to a new University of Georgia study. The authors' findings run counter to widely accepted…


UGA scientists move closer to breast cancer vaccine

Work by researchers from Franklin College and the Mayo Clinic in Arizona is being widely reported: Researchers from the University of Georgia and the Mayo Clinic in Arizona have developed a vaccine that dramatically reduces tumors in a mouse model that mimics 90 percent of human breast and pancreatic cancer cases—including those resistant to common treatments. The vaccine, described this week in the early edition of the journal Proceedings…
Subscribe to 4

Support Franklin College

We appreciate your financial support. Your gift is important to us and helps support critical opportunities for students and faculty alike, including lectures, travel support, and any number of educational events that augment the classroom experience. Click here to learn more about giving.

Every dollar given has a direct impact upon our students and faculty.