{"660688":{"#nid":"660688","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech-Emory Collaboration on Cancer Disparity in African Americans Gets NIH Boost","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDiffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a fast-growing, aggressive, and all-too-common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. And even though white people in the U.S. are more likely to develop it, people of African descent are diagnosed 10 years earlier, on average, and their 5-year survival outcome is much worse.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EResearchers\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/singhlab.bme.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EAnkur Singh\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/winshipcancer.emory.edu\/bios\/faculty\/koff-jean-l.html\u0022\u003EJean Koff\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;want to find out why and the National Cancer Institute is supporting their efforts with a $2.76 million, five-year R01 grant.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EUsing advanced sequencing and spatial-omics analysis, together with novel patient-derived organoids developed in Singh\u0026rsquo;s lab, the researchers plan to study the interactions between patient-level factors, tumor genetics, and the tumor microenvironment as features that contribute to racial disparities in diagnosis, survival, and treatment.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Once we identify factors that differ in African American patients, my lab will immune engineer lymph node-mimicking technologies to study these tumors and discover new therapies,\u0026rdquo; said\u0026nbsp;Singh, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.me.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorge W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u0026ldquo;The project is a true collaboration between a bioengineer and an oncologist.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EKoff, a clinical expert in B-cell lymphoma, leads the non-interventional research team in lymphoma at\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/winshipcancer.emory.edu\/\u0022\u003EEmory\u0026#39;s Winship Cancer Institute,\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;where she focuses on defining the immunologic and genetic factors impacting survival and response to treatment in lymphoma patients. Her team has established a specialized research tissue collection system at Winship.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Our findings that African American patients are diagnosed at a younger age and exhibit specific tumor genetic abnormalities strongly suggest a biologic component to this disparity,\u0026nbsp;but how race-specific differences in tumor immune microenvironment affect lymphoma outcomes has not been well defined,\u0026rdquo; said Koff.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESingh\u0026rsquo;s pioneering work developing and deploying modifiable organoids and on-chip systems to model benign and malignant lymphoid tissue, she added, \u0026ldquo;is an outstanding resource for investigating unanswered questions about how tumor microenvironmental factors influence response or resistance to certain therapies.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESingh and Koff, co-principal investigators on the project, are joined by Coulter Department Assistant Professor Ahmet Coskun, who specializes in multiplex imaging.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Collectively, our team will investigate the difference between African American patients versus other ancestries, leading to innovative technologies that will answer questions related to racial disparities in this type of cancer,\u0026rdquo; said Singh.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EUltimately, they want to apply what they learn to the\u0026nbsp;development of targeted treatments aimed at reducing disparities and improving outcomes for patients.\u0026nbsp;It\u0026rsquo;s the big target in a collaboration that began before Singh arrived in Atlanta.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Ankur and I have really enjoyed working together since we first learned he was relocating from Cornell to Georgia Tech,\u0026rdquo; Koff noted. \u0026ldquo;We quickly realized that our research interests and areas of expertise complement each other very well. I think our ongoing close collaboration truly exemplifies a winning Emory-Georgia Tech partnership.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech-Emory Collaboration on Cancer Disparity in African Americans Gets NIH Boost"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2022-08-30 14:29:06","changed_gmt":"2022-08-30 14:29:06","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2022-08-30T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2022-08-30T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"660685":{"id":"660685","type":"image","title":"Organoids","body":null,"created":"1661869483","gmt_created":"2022-08-30 14:24:43","changed":"1661869483","gmt_changed":"2022-08-30 14:24:43","alt":"","file":{"fid":"250323","name":"GettyImages-1332513809.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/GettyImages-1332513809.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/GettyImages-1332513809.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2282603,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/GettyImages-1332513809.jpg?itok=SV2tB5zV"}},"660687":{"id":"660687","type":"image","title":"Ankur and Jean","body":null,"created":"1661869522","gmt_created":"2022-08-30 14:25:22","changed":"1661869522","gmt_changed":"2022-08-30 14:25:22","alt":"","file":{"fid":"250324","name":"Ankur and Jean.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Ankur%20and%20Jean.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Ankur%20and%20Jean.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2540075,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Ankur%20and%20Jean.jpg?itok=jggtVjMp"}}},"media_ids":["660685","660687"],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"187423","name":"go-bio"},{"id":"189364","name":"organoids"},{"id":"190271","name":"cancer disparities"},{"id":"280","name":"Cancer research"},{"id":"186041","name":"healthcare disparities"},{"id":"12213","name":"non-Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWriter: \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["Jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}