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Researchers
Making Advancements
in Prostate Cancer Detection
By Jennifer Faddis
Prostate cancer is the second most common
cause of cancer death among men in the United States, according
to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. Now, a team of 12 researchers at the University
of Missouri-Columbia is receiving more than $3 million from the
National Institutes of Health
to use cutting-edge nanotechnology to detect and treat prostate
cancer at the molecular level.
“We will apply principles of nanoscience
and nanotechnology to develop innovative molecular imaging and
therapeutic approaches to combat prostate cancer,” said
Kattesh Katti, professor of radiology
and physics, senior
research scientist at the MU
Research Reactor and principal investigator for this project.
The research project, “Hybrid Nanoparticles
in Imaging and Therapy of Prostate Cancer” will use metallic
nanoparticles made especially for medical applications in a patented
process at MU’s Nanoparticle Production Core Facility. The
collaborative research efforts of Katti and Raghuraman Kannan,
research assistant professor of radiology at MU, have resulted
in novel discoveries for the production of biocompatible gold
and silver nanoparticles. The idea is to administer millions of
nanoparticles programmed to target cancerous tumors in the prostate.
Once the particles locate the early tumor, doctors would use an
X-ray to see the tumor. With this process, cancer may be detected
in just one cell, possibly months or even years earlier than can
be detected now. With current technology, cancer must exist within
a cluster of hundred of cells and in a much more advanced stage
to be diagnosed.
“One of the criteria for the award of
this grant was to build partnerships with other institutions to
achieve an interdisciplinary cancer nanotechnology platform. However,
with our tremendous track record in cancer research, I felt that
MU is so unique that we needed to build a partnership of outstanding
interdisciplinary researchers from within our schools of medicine,
veterinary medicine
and engineering,
College of Arts and Science
and the MU Research Reactor,” Katti said.
“Dr. Katti’s leadership has placed
MU and the state of Missouri on the map of nanotechnological breakthroughs,
thus providing timely impetus toward the establishment of a ‘Nanomedicine
Center’ for advanced nanomedicine research and formal training
of our undergraduates and graduate students in the emerging area
of nanoscience,” said Robert Churchill, professor and chairman
of radiology at MU and member of the scientific steering committee
for the grant.
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Last Update:
November 15, 2007
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