 The
goal of Ordway Cancer Center is to develop innovative approaches
to cancer treatment, based on newly discovered concepts in cancer
biology and on the identification of novel targets for anticancer
drugs.
Some of the therapeutic strategies pursued
by Cancer Center researchers include:
- Reactivation of the
physiological programs of senescence and apoptosis in tumor
cells and inhibition
of the deleterious side effects of these programs in normal
cells
- Exploiting
cell cycle checkpoint deficiencies of tumor cells to induce
tumor-specific lethal mitosis (mitotic catastrophe)
- Interfering
with the
tumor-supporting functions of normal stromal cells that
are recruited into the tumor,
including blood vessel endothelial cells and stromal
fibroblasts
In pursuit of these strategies, members
of the Cancer Center study the basic mechanisms of the induction
of senescence,
apoptosis and
mitotic catastrophe, changes in the regulation of gene
expression and protein function, associated with these processes,
and
mechanisms of DNA repair. Ordway scientists also study the
mechanisms of
liver carcinogenesis in mouse models and the role of tissue
stem cells
as the cells of origin of liver cancer.
Another major area
at Ordway Cancer Center is the identification of the key
determinants of tumor
cell growth and survival through methods of function-based
genomics,
including Genetic Suppressor Elements (GSE) and shRNA
libraries in retroviral and lentiviral vectors.
Ordway Cancer Center serves as the base for the Target
and Drug Discovery Facility, which provides assistance in function-based
genomics and offers high-throughput screening capacity for the
discovery of small molecule compounds with any desired properties.
The Cancer Center also houses Ordway Flow
Cytometry Core that operates
top-of-the-line analytical and preparative fluorescence-activated
cell sorters. It also operates the deconvolution microscopy and
laser-capture microdissection instruments of Ordway Microscopy
Core and several other essential instruments for cell and tumor
biology.
Ordway Cancer Center is interacting and collaborating with researchers
at Wadsworth Center, Albany College of Medicine, Albany College
of Pharmacy, SUNY Albany, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and
Beth Israel-Deaconess Hospital (Boston, MA).
The Cancer Center
is currently recruiting senior investigators, whose research
programs will be oriented towards cancer treatment or prevention
and will
take advantage of the scientific expertise and equipment in the
Center.
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Principal Investigators for the Cancer
Theme
Mikhail Blagosklonny, M.D., Ph.D.
Eugenia Broude,
Ph.D.
Ralph Buttyan, Ph.D.
Michael Fasullo, Ph.D.
Gennadi V. Glinsky, M.D., Ph.D.
Igor B. Roninson, Ph.D.
Stewart Sell, M.D.
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