Subhash C. Chauhan, PhD, a professor in the Departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pathology in the UTHSC Colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), has received two grants totaling $3.4 million to develop targeted nanomedicine for pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. It is very difficult to manage because there is a lack of therapeutic treatment options. Survival rates are low because of poor drug delivery and chemotherapy resistance that occurs as a result of excessive fibrosis and connective tissue growth in pancreatic tumors. Dr. Chauhan and his research team are in the process of developing new and innovative nanotherapeutic options to combat the disease.
“Our goal with these projects is to develop effective treatments and increase the effectiveness of the currently used medication, Gemcitabine,” said Dr. Chauhan. “If our efforts are successful, this research will help in developing novel targeted combination therapies for eradicating pancreatic cancer.”
His projects, titled “Targeted Nanotherapy for Pancreatic Cancer” and “Development of Targeted Nanotechnology Platform for Pancreatic Cancer,” are funded by the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. Each grant totals $1.7 million, and will be distributed over five years. Dr. Chauhan’s co-investigators at UTHSC are Meena Jaggi, PhD; Murali Yallapu, PhD; Nadeem Zafar, MBBS, MPhil; and Jim Y. Wan, PhD. Additional key participants at UTHSC are Stephenson W. Behrman, MD, FACS; Duane Miller, PhD; Bilal Hafeez, PhD; and Sheema Khan, PhD.
The National Cancer Institute, is dedicated to research and spreading knowledge on cancer. For more information, visit www.cancer.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.