August 08, 2007
Ivana Vancurova, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biological
Sciences, has been awarded a $247,500 grant from the National
Institutes of Health to continue her research on potential cancer
treatments.
The three-year award, titled “Nuclear Translocation of IkBa as a
Therapeutic Target” is the second NIH grant Vancurova has received
for her research.
To date, Vancurova’s research has focused on a molecular process
by which a protein called NFkB, which exists naturally in cells,
prolongs its host’s lifespan by binding to its nuclear DNA and
preventing it from dying.
In cases of healthy cells, this binding process is welcome; it
ensures the cell’s survival. But in cases of cancerous or
pro-inflammatory cells, the process can be undesirable, if not
life-threatening.
That’s where Vancurova’s newest research comes in. She has
discovered a way to induce a protein inhibitor called IkBa, which
is stored in a cell’s cytoplasm, to penetrate an unhealthy cell’s
nuclear membrane and bind to the NFkB, thereby preventing it from
linking to the DNA. In such cases, the unhealthy cell will die.
The way in which Vancurova induces the nuclear translocation of
IkBa is complicated, but she explains that it involves the
inhibition of “proteasome,” which is a complex of enzymes that
destroy other proteins in a cell’s cytoplasm, clearing the way for
the IkBa to infiltrate the nucleus.
Last week, Vancurova and her research team submitted their
latest findings on IkBa to the Journal of Biological
Chemistry.
According to many medical researchers, Vancurova’s discoveries
could lead to watershed developments in the field of cancer
therapy. And while its principal focus is leukemia, the NIH grant
also allows Vancurova to develop technologies that combat
inflammatory disorders such as asthma, arthritis and sepsis — all
of which are regulated by NFkB.
“The thing that most excites me about Ivana’s studies is the
fact that she has discovered a second mechanism for regulation of
NFkB activity, which presents the possibility of developing
entirely new types of therapies to target this system — since NFkB
plays a critical role in both tumor cells and inflammatory
processes,” says Bettie Steinberg, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer
of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, located on the
campus of Long Island’s North Shore University Hospital.
Vancurova has been studying the manipulation methods of NFkB for
about seven years and has published 37 research articles. Prior to
her appointment at St. John’s, she served as an Assistant Professor
of Pediatrics at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, the New Hyde
Park campus of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Her candidacy for the NIH grant was bolstered by her close
association with a small handful of dedicated St. John’s students
who work in her laboratory. Currently, Vancurova relies on the
assistance of four Ph.D. students, who in turn are assisted by
several undergraduate apprentices. The students engage in the bulk
of the lab duties, maintaining cultured cells and analyzing the way
in which NFkB can bind to both IkBa and nuclear DNA.
”St. John’s University’s commitment … to exposing students to
biomedical research is judged to be exciting,” wrote an NIH
representative in the official grant report.
Vancurova’s Ph.D. students, most of whom intend to continue
researching NFkB as post-doctoral professionals, hail Vancurova for
her mentorship, organization and unmatched scholarship.
“She is the perfect professor to work with,” says Ph.D. student
Hai Yen Vu.
Vancurova appreciates the praise, but remains focused on her
ultimate motivation: to help others.
“This is what brought me to this field — my desire to help
people,” says Vancurova, underscoring her appreciation for the
University’s Vincentian mission to serve those in need.
Vancurova says the next step of her research is to determine the
exact mechanisms by which the nuclear transmission process works,
as well as to discover a way to reduce the side effects that
accompany the manipulation of IkBa.