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Innovation Incentive Initiative - Cancer |
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With the completion of the Human Genome Project (HGP) two years ahead of schedule, attention has shifted toward other components of the cell, and gaining an understanding of the relationships between them, particularly as related to diseases such as cancer. While genes form the blueprint for cellular events, it is the proteins, carbohydrates, and other molecules that do the actual work. Because of the great diversity of these molecules (in terms of their chemistry and structure), characterizing their function poses an even greater technical challenge to scientists than do the nucleic acids that make up the genome. Successful research in (glyco)proteomics and metabolomics requires biomedical insight and expertise with (glyco)proteins/drug targets in order to properly design experiments and prepare these biological compounds, suitable access to or possession of the technical skills to use and/or develop necessary analytical instrumentation and methods for their analysis, and high-quality informatics systems to manipulate the massive amounts of data being generated about these molecules. Characterization of proteins that may be abnormally expressed in cancer cells and identification of biological compounds that target these proteins are critical areas to pursue in cancer research. Faculty at UC study diverse areas of cancer biology, from cellular signaling processes, to abnormal cell growth to drug targets.
The potential economic benefit of cancer research cannot be overstated. The death rate from all cancers in Ohio ranks as the 13th highest among US states. Additionally, Ohio ranks in the top twenty states for deaths due to lung and colorectal cancer, and 6th for breast cancer.
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