Life-saving research

Associate professors’ developments are on the fast track toward fighting hard-to-treat cancers

Angus Lamar, an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has been working on cancer research since he arrived at The University of Tulsa in 2015. An expert in organic and medicinal chemistry, Lamar’s investigations are focused on developing organic reactions that support the discovery and design of novel cancer-fighting drug compounds.

“At the outset,” explained Lamar, “my early research efforts concentrated on developing new organic reactions that produced molecules containing sulfonamide units that were previously inaccessible using traditional synthetic approaches.” By 2018, he and his team had amassed a library of novel compounds that could turn out to be anticancer and antibacterial agents.

Joined by Robert Sheaff, also an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and funded by a grant from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, Lamar and his co-researchers began testing those compounds for biological activity against a variety of cancer cell lines. Since 2019, Lamar and Sheaff’s collaboration has resulted in five publications and multiple patents that feature synthetic methods for preparing sulfonamide compounds and screening them for biological activity.

“One of the interesting things about the collaboration between Dr. Sheaff and I is that we can make new compounds and test them for activity simply by walking down the hall,” said Lamar.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Through their research into new compounds, Lamar and his team are combating that grim reality: “We’ve seen exciting results in targeting pancreatic cancer, and we have created new compounds that, when used in combination with an FDA-approved drug – 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) – selectively kill pancreatic cancer cells but leave normal healthy cells and other types of cancer cells unharmed.”

Recently, Lamar’s team, which has included graduate and undergraduate students, had success targeting glioblastoma cells – an equally deadly form of brain cancer – with a similar approach, using different compounds synthesized in their lab.

In addition to pancreatic and brain cancer, the discoveries by Lamar and his fellow researchers hold the potential for tackling breast cancer.

“We recently returned to older data and found several compounds that, when combined with 2-DG, selectively target breast cancer cells instead of normal healthy cells or other types of cancer cells,” reported Lamar. “We intend to explore this data further and are planning future investigations that center around synthetically modifying those promising initial compounds in order to create a more potent drug to target breast cancer.”

Additionally, this discovery of novel technologies was licensed by FortySix Venture Capital LLC (46VC) for commercialization efforts earlier this year. Based on the teams’ research, the technology has the capability to radically change the time and expense required to target therapeutics for the deadliest forms of cancer.

TU and 46VC executed a license arrangement that will accelerate the commercialization of these findings. Under the arrangement, 46VC will undertake efforts to commercialize the technology by building a business team; secure the necessary regulatory approvals; and, ultimately, bring the technology to market.

“The agreement with 46VC provides an opportunity to see our research efforts lead to better, more effective chemotherapeutics targeting hard-to-treat cancers,” Sheaff said.

“Great cities have great research universities, and Tulsa is no exception,” said TU President Brad R. Carson. “This agreement demonstrates how The University of Tulsa is invested in supporting our faculty and students to commercialize their research and inventions.”

Bill Lawson, TU’s director of technology commercialization, led the charge for securing this licensing arrangement with support from faculty in the university’s Collins College of Business, including Mike Troilo and Chris Wright, whose interdisciplinary involvement carved the path for business plan development and venture capital investment.

“It’s an outstanding day when The University of Tulsa takes a big step forward in making our inventors’ intellectual properties accessible to everyone,” Lawson said. “Drs. Lamar and Sheaff’s findings can literally save lives.”

Not only that – Lamar and Sheaff are working with undergraduate students as well as graduate students in their research.

Lamar received TU’s Outstanding Teacher Award in spring 2022 – 10 years after Sheaff was honored with the same award. It is little surprise, therefore, that these deeply committed educators actively promote opportunities for students to get involved in potentially life-saving research. A major benefit is that students can learn about and contribute to multiple aspects of the drug discovery process, including synthetic organic chemistry and biochemistry/biological assays.

“I think this is something that is truly unique to the student experience at TU,” Lamar remarked. “I’m eager to see what our students will come up with as we start to expand research into breast cancer compounds. It will no doubt be impressive.”