Wilmot Warrior Weekend Fundraising Provides First Annual Seed Grant to Immunotherapy Research Team
“One of the most important things we do is research” says Jonathan Friedberg, MD, MMSc., director of Wilmot Cancer Institute. “It makes our entire cancer center better, leads to the highest level of clinical care, and allows us to recruit world-class leaders to Rochester.”
Thanks to money raised at the Wilmot Warrior Weekend, a new award was established to provide seed funding to a team of Wilmot cancer researchers. After reviewing several worthy projects, Wilmot leaders presented the first-ever award to Brian Altman, PhD, and Minsoo Kim, PhD, who are investigating the connection between circadian rhythms and cancer. These rhythms, also know as the “biological clock” or “sleep-wake cycle,” play a major role in controlling the immune system and whether cancer cells are receptive to immune therapy.
Researchers have discovered that tumors also have their own cycles and can act more aggressively if they lack a normal 24-hour rhythm, Altman explains.
“For example, one of the most exciting new treatments for lung cancer is immunotherapy: giving drugs to a activate a patient’s own immune system to fight the cancer,” Altman says. “But they don’t always work, and we don’t know why. Our data suggests that if tumors have a broken circadian clock, immunotherapy may be ineffective. And, if the tumor has a functional circadian clock, there may be a best time to deliver immunotherapy to kill the cancer cells.”
After more study, circadian rhythms could become a new diagnostic tool to determine if immunotherapy is the right choice for a patient. Further, if it is the right choice, doctors could give the treatment at a certain time of day to maximize its benefit.
According to Hartmut “Hucky” Land, Ph. D., deputy director of Wilmot Cancer Institute, the team component of this award is crucial. “A multi-disciplinary approach allows researchers to collaborate across teams to leverage expertise they might not otherwise have.” In addition to Dr. Altman, and expert in circadian rhythms and molecular cancer biology, and Dr. Kim, and expert in cancer immunology and T-cells, the team includes Dr. Moises Velez, an accomplished clinical pathologist, and Dr. Charles Kamen, an expert in clinical trial design and implementation.
Each year teams of research scientists will compete for this prestigious award through a rigorous application process. “These projects show great promise and capacity for significant additional funding” says Land. “The return on investment is tremendous.”