cancer research

The opportunity to conduct research is fueling this community health student to discover life-saving cancer treatments

Taylor Thomas — Tue, 13 May 2025 13:18:27 +0000

The opportunity to conduct research is fueling this community health student to discover life-saving cancer treatments Taylor Thomas Tue, 05/13/2025 - 09:18

During her sophomore year at �鶹��Ƶ, College of Public Health student Paris Stephens sought to gain more experience as a research assistant, but knew not just any project would suffice.

Paris Stephens, BS in Community Health with a concentration in Clinical Science student. Photo provided.

Stephens, who was working on a Bachelor of Science in Community Health with a concentration in Clinical Science, was adamant her work not only contribute to her growth as a researcher, but also aligned with her desire to create meaningful impact. After speaking with her professors about the array of opportunities available, she found her perfect fit with Associate Professor Michelle Williams’s research, developing a culturally relevant breast cancer education intervention for young African American women.

“I felt compelled to be part of research that educates, advocates, and drives change,” Stephens said. "The focus on breast cancer awareness and disparities deeply resonated with my passion for advancing health equity, especially among young Black women. I wanted my efforts to matter."

Black women, at any age, are more likely to die from breast cancer than any other race or ethnic group. Stephens’s work included conducting comprehensive literature reviews, identifying key gaps in research, data collection and analysis, participating in community education campaigns, and communicating with survey participants.

“I’ve gained valuable learning the ins and outs of research protocols, such as how to work ethically with human research participants,” Stephens said. "I also learned how to collect, organize, and publish data—skills that have made me more confident and capable as an aspiring public health professional. Overall, this experience has allowed me to support evidence-based practices that promote community health and drive real-world impact."

Stephens presenting her research at the 2025 National Conference on Undergraduate Research. Photo provided

Stephens was thrilled by the opportunity to work with Williams, absorbing an abundance of knowledge from her as a cancer prevention and control expert. Stephens presented her work at the 2025 National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Pittsburgh.

“Working with Dr. Williams has been an incredible experience. She is a brilliant researcher and she’s helped me grow into a more thoughtful and skilled researcher myself. Her mentorship has been both inspiring and transformative,” she said.

Stephens was the recipient of the Undergraduate Award for Excellence in Research at the 2025 College of Public Health Degree Celebration.

Stephens recently accepted a position with Shady Grove Fertility as a patient service representative, where she will deliver patient support by resolving concerns, coordinating with departments, guiding patients on insurance and financial options, and ensuring compliance and data accuracy while maintaining confidentiality and professionalism. Following her graduation in spring 2025, she intends to pursue a Master of Science in Management.

Stephens aspires to continue pursuing breast cancer research as a clinical research coordinator or work within hospital or pharmaceutical settings focused on breast cancer treatments, ensuring that new drugs and medical devices are safe, effective, and beneficial for communities.

Her ultimate goal is to serve in roles that allow her to contribute to life-saving innovations and clinical advancements.

“I want to be part of the team that makes sure we are not only innovating—but doing so responsibly and ethically,” Stephens said.

In This Story

Michelle S. Williams, PhD, MSPH

Research at George �鶹��Ƶ

�鶹��Ƶ team playing a role in the Cancer Moonshot Initiative

John Hollis — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 16:58:39 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ team playing a role in the Cancer Moonshot Initiative John Hollis Tue, 11/29/2022 - 11:58

Emanuel "Chip" Petricoin is the co-founder and the co-director of �鶹��Ƶ's Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine. Photo by Creative Services

A team of �鶹��Ƶ scientists has a role in the White House Cancer Moonshot Initiative, and their work could help in the mission to reduce cancer rates in half over the next 25 years.

The U.S. government is partnering with researchers to reduce cancer deaths by bringing together a large community of patients, advocates, researchers and clinicians.

Researchers from the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM) within �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Science are working on a molecular profiling technology that would better identify the most effective drugs in the fight against specific cancers.

“I think it’s very realistic to reduce cancer death rates in half in 25 years,” said Emanuel “Chip” Petricoin, a University Professor and the co-founder and co-director of CAPMM.

Petricoin cited better technologies and approaches for early detection, a growing cadre of targeted therapeutics and immunooncology drugs that are precision-tuned for specific individuals, and the democratization and commoditization of molecular profiling that allows patients to get therapies tailored to their specific needs as the reasons for his optimism.

The development of the Reverse Phase Protein Array (RPPA) as part of the Applied Proteogenomics OrganizationaL Learning and Outcomes (APOLLO) network is helping to prepare patients for therapy in future versions of the trials.

His team’s unique approach and a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA)-certified laboratory are two big reasons why �鶹��Ƶ’s CAPMM team has been continuously funded by the Department of Defense’s Apollo Moonshot project for the past four years, Petricoin said.

The CAPMM team has a new initiative to develop a far less invasive “liquid biopsy” assay technology platform that requires a blood sample rather than a tumor biopsy to provide specific drug target information that will better fight the cancer.

Petricoin likes the direction in which he sees the research headed and says the only potential obstacle would be convincing insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies to pay for and provide the drugs at no cost for those trials.

“I can easily see cancer death rates even falling by 80 to 90% in 25 years compared to now,” he said. “I predict most cancer will become a chronic disease, managed like we do with other diseases, like diabetes.”

Chip Petricoin can be reached at epetrico@gmu.edu.

For more information, contact John Hollis at jhollis2@gmu.edu.

�鶹��Ƶ George �鶹��Ƶ

�鶹��Ƶ is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., �鶹��Ƶ enrolls nearly 40,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. �鶹��Ƶ has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity and commitment to accessibility. �鶹��Ƶ celebrates 50 years as an independent institution. Learn more at www.gmu.edu.

Topics

Tip Sheet

cancer research

Cancer Treatment

Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM)

College of Science

Research

Bioengineers and biologists team up to battle cancer cells

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 18:41:07 +0000

Bioengineers and biologists team up to battle cancer cells Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/21/2021 - 14:41

In This Story

Remi Veneziano

Bioengineers—like Remi Veneziano—find solutions to some of the world’s grand problems. But sometimes, it takes collaboration with scientists to find out the questions that need to be answered to properly apply and maximize these engineering solutions.

Veneziano, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Computing, is partnering with Amanda Haymond, a research assistant professor in the School of Systems Biology, to apply DNA nanotechnology to create a drug that boosts the immune response to fight breast cancer.

Amanda Haymond is a research assistant professor in the School of Systems Biology in the College of Science.

Their work entitled “New Hybrid Molecular Modalities Comprised of DNA-Origami and Interfering Peptides as Inhibitors of Protein-Protein Interactions” received a grant of nearly $530,000 from the National Institutes of Health’s Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies program, which funds explicitly creative technologies for cancer detection or treatment. “There are two big things we are trying to do with this work, one is to answer a biological question, and the other is to provide a proof of concept for a new drug modality,” says Haymond.

On the biology side, Veneziano and Haymond are looking to target a specific protein’s complex. When a body is infected with cancer, a protein called IL-33 will signal the immune system to flood the cancerous area with immune cells to combat cancer and stop further damage. “However, in a chronic inflammatory cancer context, the flood of IL-33 can recruit a number of other cell types, including MDSCs, that are activated by binding to IL-33 and tamp down on the immune response,” says Haymond.

The influx of suppressive immune cells can be detrimental as the body stops fighting the cancer. In addition, the protein structure created from the interaction of IL-33 and MDSCs is quite large, which makes it difficult to target with conventional small molecule drugs. This is where Veneziano’s work in DNA nanotechnology comes in.

“With the technology we are developing, instead of testing multiple drug combinations for efficiency, we can take into consideration the structural parameters of the protein we are trying to target, and use DNA nanotechnology to build rigid nanoscale objects that would have the same dimensions and organization as the protein to target multiple sites of the protein simultaneously,” says Veneziano.

Remi Veneziano is using his DNA nanotechnology to test a new drug modality to fight breast cancer.

Therefore, the drugs they are developing will act as adaptors that will prevent the proteins from interacting together. Veneziano’s nanotechnology research makes it possible to precisely target multiple sites on these proteins concurrently to increase the success of their drug. So, instead of using three separate drugs that possibly won’t work in tandem properly to prevent this immune response, Haymond and Veneziano are developing a new drug modality that is exactly designed with the target in mind.

Veneziano is hopeful that this process could be completely automated, making it easier to target certain proteins to combat different types of cancer and diseases. This expansion will require even more collaboration between scientists and engineers in the future, Haymond and Veneziano say.

“This work can’t be done by bioengineers or biologists independently. It takes synergy between the two of us, and �鶹��Ƶ and its institutes promote these types of collaborations,” says Veneziano.