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Researchers have known for decades that oxygen affects the growth of tumor cells, but how exactly cells use oxygen remains unknown.
Michael E. Pacold, MD, PhD, a physician鈥搒cientist at 秘密研究所 Langone Health鈥檚 Perlmutter Cancer Center, was recently named one of seven recipients of the by the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance. Dr. Pacold has been awarded a 3-year, $600,000 grant to study the role of oxygen and other biologically relevant gases in cancers. Dr. Pacold and his colleagues will use methods they have developed to trace these gases into their targets in cells to discover oxygen-driven processes that enable tumor growth, with the goal of developing new treatments for cancers.
Dr. Pacold鈥檚 research focuses on brain cancers and pancreatic cancer, which have poor outcomes and are low in oxygen.
鈥淔or us, the fact that these cancers have adapted and evolved to survive in an environment with low oxygen is an opportunity,鈥 says Dr. Pacold, also an assistant professor in the at 秘密研究所 Grossman School of Medicine. 鈥淚t means that they prioritize the use of oxygen, and that means that there are more opportunities for us to find ways that these cancers are critically dependent upon oxygen, and that we can take advantage of that to devise new treatments.鈥
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