Helping Prostate Cancer Patients

UNCW researchers on the brink of a new treatment discovery

BY: KRISSY VICK PHOTOGRAPHY BY: JEFF JANOWSKI

Tucked away in Dobo Hall, an expansive science building that sits along Chancellor’s Walk, a chemistry lab and a biology lab are home to a team of UNCW students who are developing a new treatment to help patients battling prostate cancer.

“It is shocking to me to think about how important the work we are doing is,” said Madeleine Goldthorpe, who is an Honors College student pursuing a biology major and chemistry minor. “As a child, I never thought I’d be involved in this caliber of a project.”

Goldthorpe is among more than a dozen UNCW undergraduate and Ph.D. students, primarily female, researching with College of Science and Engineering faculty members Sridhar Varadarajan, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Art Frampton, Department of Biology and Marine Biology.

The research team’s collective goal is to develop a molecule that can successfully seek and destroy cancerous prostate cells while leaving healthy cells untouched, a process called selective toxicity.

Unlike other pharmaceutical treatments currently available that harm both healthy and cancerous cells, like chemotherapy, the team's work could lead to reduced side effects for cancer patients, as well as mitigate risks for secondary cancers.

This isn’t the first time Frampton and Varadarajan have collaborated. In 2021, they published findings about a similar research breakthrough that targeted breast cancer cells. They are also applying the science to brain cancer cells and seeing promising results.

Their prostate cancer research is so compelling that the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute, the federal government’s principal agency for cancer research and the largest funder of cancer research in the world, is funding the project with a $447,000 grant for the next three years.

On a typical day, visitors can find students Malavika Volety, Jocelyn Torres, Monika Nguyen, Nicky Mendoza and others in Varadarajan’s lab working with molecules, testing compounds and monitoring reactions.

“It has been a dream of mine since high school to contribute to cancer research,” said Volety.

“I have seen my grandfather suffer from cancer and pass away, and so the potential for this molecule to work would be the greatest thing for me and one of the milestones of my life.”

– Malavika Volety

Torres, a non-traditional student working on her second undergraduate degree, developed a similar passion for discovery after her mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2018.

“Both of my parents have had many struggles and sacrifices for me to be here,” she said. “I not only want to make myself proud, but my parents proud, too. I would love to see the end result of our research and have all our pieces come together before I graduate.”

Meanwhile, in Frampton's biology lab, Goldthorpe can be found most days growing and testing prostate cancer cells and teaching her peers about the process. She spends about 15 hours per week collaborating on the research and mentoring.

“I never imagined I’d be doing this important work as an undergraduate. I thought you only did research like this your senior year or in grad school,” she said.

For patients who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, the second leading cause of death in men behind lung cancer, there is an urgency for finding successful treatments and cures.

“All of us know someone who has had cancer or gone through chemotherapy and how debilitating it can be,” said Varadarajan. “There is always a human who is waiting for successful therapy, so time is of the essence. I always think about it when we do this research.”

Having access to world-class facilities and equipment along with the proximity of the labs helps to mitigate risks and expedite the research.

“We have everything we need for our research here in Dobo Hall, Veterans Hall and the Center for Marine Science,” said Varadarajan.

While a firm timeline is hard to predict, Varadarajan believes it is conceivable that a treatment drug could be FDA approved and available to patients within 7-10 years. In the meantime, he said they will continue to empower their students to learn and discover along the way.

“For me, the most rewarding aspects of this research are that these compounds will one day benefit patients, and their cancer will go into remission; and the more immediate effect is that we are training future scientists, medical doctors and problem solvers.”

FROM TOP: UNCW students Madeleine Goldthorpe and Jocelyn Torres are recipients of the Sherman-Skiba Fund for Undergraduate Research and Community Engagement Endowment. The fund provides support for undergraduate research, giving students the real-world experiences they need to be career-ready when they graduate.

Torres is also a recipient of the Ernest S. Prevost Chemistry Scholarship Endowment.