Urology Basic Science and Clinical Research SCHIEWER UROLOGY LAB As we close out another calendar year still mired in a pandemic, Dr. Schiewer notes: “I am reminded about why we do what we do in the lab: to try to positively impact the lives of cancer patients and their family members. The students in the lab are both thriving and striving towards the goal of benefitting human health.” Moriah Cunningham, who is a PhD student in the Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Program, is making progress on better understanding the mechanisms that underlie response to PARP inhibitors in prostate cancer. Her work has the potential to uncover strategies to use this class of drug with greater precision. Moriah is in the midst of putting together her thesis committee, and is nearly finished with all required coursework, which will give her increased time to pursue her research. Latese Evans, who is both a Master of Science student and a Research Technician in the lab, is making progress on understanding the molecular underpinnings that lead to differences between male and female bladder cancer patients. She is investigating the roles that hormones play in bladder tumors, and whether these mechanisms could be taken advantage of for therapeutic benefit. We are also excited that Latese has made the decision to continue her studies in the lab and pursue her PhD degree beginning next year. Candice Bizzaro, who is a PhD student in the Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology Program, is currently rotating in our lab as part of the process in deciding which lab to conduct her thesis research. She has spent the last several weeks investigating a novel combination treatment strategy for bladder cancer management that builds on the standard of care. The initial results seem promising!
Schiewer Urology Lab in the Bleumle Life Science Building team members: Candice Bizzaro (PhD Rotating Student), Matt Schiewer, PhD (Lab Principal Investigator), Moriah Cunningham (PhD Student), Latese Evans (MS/Research Assistant) VPAC PROJECT UPDATE Funded by the NIH, our joint UrologyRadiology research group is continuing work to develop a simple and reliable method that uses voided urine and targets a genomic biomarker, VPAC, to detect prostate cancer. VPAC (combined vasoactive intestinal peptide and pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide family of cell surface receptors) is expressed in high density only on malignant prostate cancer cells shed in urine, using a specific biomolecule developed in our laboratory. A microscopic examination of the shed cells distinguishes malignant cells from normal epithelial cells efficiently and depicts prostate cancer with >95% accuracy. The Co-PI’s are Drs. Thakur and Trabulsi. Drs. Tripathi and Manisha Kumari in Dr. Thakur’s lab perform these innovative studies and urology research fellow Dr. Cass Clark is primarily assigned to the
clinical component of the study. Dr. Thakur is Director, Laboratories of Radiopharmaceutical Research, Molecular Imaging and Biofluid Diagnostics and Professor of Radiology, Radiation Oncology and Urology and Dr. Trabulsi is Professor of Urology and Vice Chair for research. We are pleased to also report some new findings from our Jefferson India Center collaborators at KLE in Belgaum, India. Following Dr. Thakur’s visits to KLE and reviewing their techniques, they have been able to validate clinically our VPAC prostate cancer detection work and have also identified that bladder cancer shed cells can also be detected in the urine using the VPAC shed cell assay. The concept of VPAC shed cell detection on a wide variety of epithelial malignancies was developed by Drs. Mat Thakur and Leonard
Moriah and Latese are also working on a collaborative project where they are investigating the potential of novel therapeutic strategy in the context of advanced prostate cancer. The preliminary results to uncover the mechanisms by which this combination is effective, and identify which patients might benefit have excited us. Work continues on the identification of genomic signatures that may provide insight into why certain patients develop muscle invasive bladder cancer following pelvic radiation therapy. This past year has been an exciting time of discovery in the lab, and we are excited about what the future will bring. Dr. Scheiwer is currently in the midst of recruiting a postdoctoral fellow, and, as always, the lab is in pursuit of grant funding. We are grateful for the support of the Department of Urology and the SKCC.
Drs. Thakur, Trabulsi and Clark in Dr. Thakur’s lab with the fluorescent confocal microscope used to detect VPAC positive cells in urine. Jefferson Urology
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