Areas of Research :: Medical Sciences :: Cancer Research

Cancer Research at SUNY

Cancer, the second leading cause of death in the United States, is actually more than 100 distinct diseases. Using sophisticated scientific tools, technologies and biomedical knowledge generated by the mapping of the human genome, SUNY researchers are developing more effective and less harmful approaches to prevention, detection, and interventions designed to slow, stop, or reverse the progression of these diseases.

Detect

• Dr. Arie Kaufman, leading professor and chairman of the Computer Science department at Stony Brook University, has developed SUNY-patented diagnostic 3D imaging software that is used in the FDA-approved Virtual Colonoscopy.
• Dr. Randall Barbour, professor of pathology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, has devised SUNY-patented optical tomography methods that are used in a new portable device that is more sensitive, safer for patients, and less expensive than most traditional radiation-based diagnostic imaging systems in use today.
• Dr. Henri Tiedge, professor of physiology, pharmacology and neurology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, is developing a test for the presence of an RNA molecule tumor marker that may some day lead to early stage breast cancer detection.
• At Old Westbury, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Robert M. Hoyte's work with radiohalogenated androgens has been shown to have great utility in methods used to detect tumors and the metastases that may follow.
• Dr. Omuwunmi Sadik is developing injectable biosensors that can reliably and immediately detect cancer's calling card.
• Dr. Harold Ackler, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Binghamton University, began an interdisciplinary effort to develop a micro-scale cell analysis device to detect small numbers of cancer cells in blood.

Top to Bottom: Dr. Harold Ackler, Binghamton University; Dr. Randall Barbour, SUNY Downstate Medical Center; Dr. Henri Tiedge, SUNY Downstate Medical Center; Dr. Paulette McCormick, University at Albany

Prevent and Treat

• Dr. Paulette McCormick, director of the University at Albany Center for Functional Genomics and the Gen*NY*sis Center for Excellence in Cancer Genomics, is investigating the role of a specific protein in tumor progression and cancer therapies involving derivatives of vitamin A.
• Dr. Wen-Tien Chen, director of the Metastasis Research Laboratory at Stony Brook University, has developed SUNY-patented monoclonal antibodies that stop tumors from developing new blood vessels, the basis of technology and products to detect cancer and treat patients with metastatic cancer without toxic side-effects.
• Dr. Iwao Ojima, distinguished professor and chairman of the Department of Chemistry at Stony Brook University, has created novel taxanes with enhanced potency in killing resistant tumors and reduced side effects.
• Drs. Josef Michl, associate professor of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Immunology and Microbiology, and Matthew Pincus, professor of Clinical Pathology, both at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, have developed a peptide that selectively kills pancreatic carcinoma cells and a monoclonal antibody specific for pancreatic carcinoma that can be used as a potential diagnostic and therapeutic agent.
• Dr. Paras Prasad, executive director of the University at Buffalo's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, has developed SUNY-patented "nanoclinics," thin silica bubbles that one day may allow cancer patients to receive treatments through a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedure in a doctor's office.
• Working in her Binghamton University lab, professor of chemistry Dr. Susan Bane seeks to create a cancer drug as powerful as Taxol, but without the painful side effects.