Research Highlights

Lung Cancer Early Detection

Karen Kelly, M.D. and co-PI Suzanne Miyamoto, Ph.D. are leading a multidisciplinary research team of physicians and scientists from the renowned UC Davis Medical Center that is taking a systems biology approach to the problem of lung cancer early detection. Their preliminary information has shown that different sugar, fat, and chemical patterns exist in the blood of patients with lung cancer compared to those patients without lung cancer. This project will validate these findings and produce a panel of biomarkers that will form the basis of a specific and sensitive non-invasive blood test for the detection of early lung cancer.

Integrated multi-omics approach to detect early lung cancer, Karen Kelly, Ph.D. (clinical lead); Suzanne Miyamoto, Ph.D. (technical lead) 20PT-0034. Click here to view the Abstract

David Wong, and colleagues from UCLA constitute the leading research team in salivary diagnostics funded by the National Institute of Health to develop salivary biomarker and point-of-care biosensor platform technologies. They have already demonstrated proof-of-concept that salivary biomarkers can detect human lung cancer. This Integrated Research Project with Co-PI Silverio Santiago, clinical professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, will perform the definitive and pivotal human clinical validation study.  This transformative goal echoes a national initiative from President Obama that mandates “(d)etecting dozens of diseases in a sample of saliva” as one of the 14 Grand Challenges for the 21st Century.

Salivary Biomarkers Development for Detection of Lung Cancer David Wong, Ph.D. (technical lead); Silverio Santiago, M.D., (clinical lead) 20PT-0032. Click here to view the Abstract