The OSUCCC – James Center for Cancer Engineering program is a collaboration to design, develop and integrate innovative engineering technologies and data analytic approaches with cancer biology, biomechanics and fundamental science. The goal: to enhance cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment to improve the lives of patients. The program offers new training opportunities, high-impact collaborative research, collaborative and cross-disciplinary funding, and technology development and transfer.
Active Research Collaborations
Electromagnetic Fields: Motility of Metastatic Breast Cancer Cells
Jonathan Song, PhD – Mechanical and Aerospace EngineeringRamesh Ganju, PhD – College of Medicine, Department of Pathology
This study showed that low-intensity electromagnetic fields hindered the mobility of specific breast cancer cells by preventing the formation of long, thin extensions at the edge of a migrating cancer cell. The research was done on cells in a lab, and the concept hasn’t yet been tested in animals or humans. The study was published in Communications Biology on August 8, 2019. The research team, which included engineers and cancer biologists, found that cancer cells appeared to sense both the presence of the electromagnetic fields and also the direction from which the fields were coming.
Handheld Diagnostic Device for Early Detection
Shaurya Prakash, PhD – Mechanical and Aerospace EngineeringRaphael Pollock, MD, PhD – The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center
This project between the teams of Raphael Pollock, MD, PhD, and Shaurya Prakash, PhD, focuses on developing new diagnostic technologies using innovative microfluidic and nanofluidic devices for cancer detection. Specifically, their handheld, chip-scale device aims to isolate, capture and purify extracellular vesicles for analysis of their molecular cargo. The molecular cargo within these vesicles can be a potent biomarker for cancer diagnostics, and it presents a new frontier in early cancer detection as well as monitoring treatment progress. As a first step, the teams have chosen to focus on sarcoma, a rare and difficult to treat cancer, and expect to expand the utility of the technology to other cancers.
Role of Blood Vessels in Brain Metastases
Jonathan Song, PhD – Mechanical and Aerospace EngineeringGina Sizemore, PhD – College of Medicine, Radiation Oncology
Breast cancer metastasis to the brain is known to be a significant clinical problem and yet it is surprisingly understudied. Mechanical engineering assistant professor Jonathan Song, PhD, and radiation oncology assistant professor Gina Sizemore, PhD, earned a two-year, $200,000 Pelotonia-funded grant from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute to investigate the role of blood vessels in brain metastases. They aim for their fundamental work to inform future drug development. Their proposal, “Probing the Mechanisms of Vessel Co-Option and Resistance to Anti-Angiogenesis Therapy With Engineered Microvessels,” was submitted through the OSUCCC – James Spring 2019 Intramural Research Program.
Personalizing Spinal Cancer Treatment
William Marras, PhD, CPE – Neurological Surgery, Integrated Systems Engineering, Physical Medicine & Rehab, Spine Research InstituteDukagjin Blakaj, MD, PhD – Translational Therapeutics, Spine Research Institute
Eric Bourekas, MD – Radiology, Neuroradiology, Interventional Radiology, Spine Research Institute
This collaborative, multidisciplinary research initiative focuses on developing optimal treatment strategies for cancer patients with metastatic disease to the spine. Recent advances in cancer treatments have led to utilizing immunotherapy to treat metastatic cancer to the spine, but not all patients seem to benefit. For this reason, there is an increasing use of stereotactic radiotherapy within the setting of immunotherapy to improve patient outcomes. These combined therapies, however, have been associated with risk of vertebral compression fractures (VCF), which pose a major challenge to patient care. Therefore, effectively identifying patients at-risk of VCF and those who might benefit from prophylactic interventions is critical. As part of this effort, the research team is leveraging innovative use of biomechanical models for better understanding the causal mechanisms leading to vertebral instability and fractures. Additionally, they are exploring potentially utilizing these models to enhance clinical decision-making for patient selection and to personalize treatments further for patients with cancer.
Cross-Disciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars Program
The Cross-Disciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars Program (CPSP) seeks to recognize outstanding young researchers at The Ohio State University and to help recruit highly qualified postdoctoral researchers who will become leaders in the research fields that bridge medicine and engineering. The CPSP offers unique training in applied and translational engineering for cancer imaging and therapy. Jointly funded and administered by Ohio State’s College of Engineering and The James, the CPSP is a highly competitive program that focuses on training postdoctoral researchers at the intersection of medicine and engineering in order to augment and support campus-wide teams of cancer researchers, clinicians and engineering experts.
Four CPSP fellowships will be awarded each year. The program’s first four postdoctoral recipients and their corresponding research projects have been awarded.
Hossein Admadian-Ahmadabadis, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow working on a project led by Spine Research Institute executive director and engineering professor Bill Marras, PhD, CPE, and Dukagjin Blakaj, MD, PhD, (radiation oncology) and Eric Bourekas, MD, (radiology, neurology and neurological surgery). The team’s goal is to develop predictive algorithms for better assessing cancer treatment impact and improving quality of life for patients with metastatic cancer to the spine. Dr. Ahmadian-Ahmadabad received his PhD in integrated systems engineering from Ohio State in 2018.
Silvio de Araújo Fernandes Júnior, PhD, will work with chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Jessica Winter, PhD, and pathologist José Otero, MD, PhD (neuropathology). They will be developing imaging technologies to enable pathway analysis in cell models, and eventually, whole organism models. Their work includes comprehensive development of imaging agents, super-resolution microscopy technology and image analysis methods for cancer biology testbeds. Dr. Fernandes Júnior earned his PhD from University of São Paulo (Brazil).
Agnieszka Chmielewska, PhD, will study additive manufacturing processes to determine which is best for producing resorbable magnesium alloy skeletal fixation hardware for oral cancer treatment, which often requires surgically removing the tumor and portions of the jaw bone. The collaborative project is led by materials science and engineering professor Alan Luo, Dr. David Dean (plastic surgery) and Dr. Roman Skoracki (oncologic plastic surgery). Chmielewska conducted her PhD research at Warsaw (Poland) University of Technology.
Marie Goulard, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Nationwide Children’s Hospital since 2018, will work with biomedical engineering assistant professor Jennifer Leight, PhD, and associate professor of pediatrics Dhvanit Shah, PhD. Using 3D bioprinting and lab-on-a-chip methods, the team will develop off-the-shelf cancer immunotherapies for blood cancers and beyond. Dr. Goulard received her PhD from University of Paris Diderot (France).
Research Seed Grants
The College of Engineering and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center will combine funding to provide seed grants to form new interdisciplinary teams or to advance research for federal and foundation proposal readiness.