Susanna F. Greer: A ‘Gold Medal’ in Cancer Discovery

Susanna F. Greer shared an article on LinkedIn:

”If there were an Olympics for cancer researchers, the V Foundation Grantee Dr. Ferdinando Pucci, from OHSU Knight Cancer Institute would be a Gold Medal winner: his lab is going the extra mile for innovation in cancer research in this week’s Cool Cancer Find where he dives into extracellular vesicles (EV’s) and their ability to revolutionize our approach to cancer treatment.

To understand EV’s, imagine your body as a city where cells act as citizens, needing a way to communicate. These cells use tiny delivery drones called extracellular vesicles (EV’s) to send and exchange important information.

Researchers including Dr. Pucci and team have developed cool ways to track these drones, similar to fitting them with GPS trackers, to see where they travel in the body.

Dr. Pucci genetically engineered EV’s in donor cells that light up like fireflies, making it easier to track the drones’ paths. He has also shown that he can stop these drones to better understand their role. The Pucci lab found that EVs often end up in lymph nodes, where immune cells called macrophages capture them. These macrophages then act like security guards, checking the contents of the EVs.

Finally, instead of tagging the EV’s themselves, Dr. Pucci can tag the recipient cells that interact with EVs. This method acts like a special ink that marks recipient cells when EVs bind to them. This tool provides clearer and more specific labeling compared to other methods. It’s like having a high-definition map showing exactly where each drone delivers its message.

So, how does all of this relate to cancer? The more we learn about EV’s, we can in turn use EV’s to study how cancer stem cells interact with their environment and other cells, providing valuable insights into cancer progression. And, if it turns out that cancer cells use EVs to spread harmful messages, we can block these communications, potentially stopping cancer from spreading. By harnessing the power of EVs, we might also deliver targeted therapies directly to cancer cells, making treatments more effective and reducing side effects. Which all sounds to me like key steps towards revolutionizing our approaches to cancer treatments.

Find the lab at Ferdinando Pucci/OHSU People/OHSU and read their latest paper at Frontiers/A case for the study of native extracellular vesicles.”

Source: Susanna F. Greer/LinkedIn

Susanna F. Greer is the Chief Scientific Officer at the V Foundation. Before this role, Dr. Greer was a Senior Scientific Director at the American Cancer Society, where she led the Biochemistry and Immunology of Cancer Research Program. Greer’s work focuses on identifying crucial signaling pathways in the immune response to cancer and has led to significant discoveries in molecular immunology and new epigenetic targets.