Reply
William Zamboni, PharmD, PhD
Sha Chang, PhD
New Brunswick, N.J., May 26, 2021 – In the world of cancer therapies, nanoparticles hold great promise for delivering more effective and safer cancer treatment than the standard small molecule drugs that are commonly used today.
William Zamboni, PharmD, PhD, an expert in the pharmacology of nanoparticles at the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Sha Chang, PhD, director of medical physics research at UNC, and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey Director Steven K. Libutti, MD, FACS, whose work involves understanding the tumor microenvironment, are hoping to fight pancreatic cancer using the combination of a novel type of radiation and nanoparticles. The work is supported by a $2,792,913 grant (1R01CA247652-01A1) from the National Institutes of Health s National Cancer Institute.
E-Mail
IMAGE: HPV infection causes cells to undergo changes. If not treated these cells can, over time, become cancer cells. view more
Credit: National Cancer Institute
Today, doctors and scientists across America at National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers and other organizations issued a joint statement urging the nation s health care systems, physicians, parents and children, and young adults to get the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination back on track.
Dramatic drops in annual well visits and immunizations during the COVID-19 pandemic have caused a significant vaccination gap and lag in vital preventive services among U.S. children and adolescents especially for the HPV vaccine. The pandemic also has exacerbated health disparities, leaving Black, Indigenous and other people of color; rural; and sexual minority adolescents at even greater risk for missed doses of this cancer prevention vaccine.
Date Time
Cancer Drug Shows Potential Against Pseudo SARS-CoV-2 in Lab Tests
Despite the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments are still needed to combat this disease, which has killed millions of people and still kills thousands each day across the world. Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine conducted lab experiments showing how the cancer drug lenalidomide disrupts a cellular pathway in human cells so that pseudo-viruses derived from SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – cannot enter cells to cause infection.
The research, published in a letter to the journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, shows the potential of an existing FDA-approved drug to help doctors treat the sickest COVID-19 patients.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – While the pace of hiring has been ramping up in the Triangle and across North Carolina, considerable talent gaps continue to dampen the region’s economic recovery.
WRAL TechWire examined this dynamic last week in a multi-part series covering the state’s emerging “jobs conundrum.” Pandemic-related concerns and lack of financial incentives play into this shortfall, as NC State economist Mike Walden pointed out in a column.
Employers are scrambling to fill high-demand roles in healthcare, drug development and biotechnology, as today’s Jobs Report shows. Jobs in tech-centric occupations like software development and information technology are also readily available.
Fellow, Carolina Population Center
Member, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
This talk is an expansion of one that Dr. Robinson recorded for an upcoming SER 2021 symposium. That symposium is titled, “What has the pandemic revealed about the shortcomings of modern epidemiology? What can we fix or do better?” In that talk and here, she discusses two shortcomings she perceives in academic epidemiology’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. One is an overreliance on conditional statistics and the other is workforce that is too homogenous with respect to the diversity of the US population.