Host-Tumor Interactions Research Program (HT) (Project-002)

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville TN

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

PROJECT 002 ? HOST-TUMOR RESEARCH PROGRAM PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Host-Tumor Interactions Research Program (HT) consists of basic, translational and clinical scientists focused on discovering the interactions between tumor cells and their host, and developing strategies to interrupt those interactions in order to target and control tumor progression and metastasis. The central theme of HT is that tumor growth, invasion and metastasis depend not only on the tumor cell alone, but also on the complex interactions between the tumor cells and the host. In light of these realizations, the long-term scientific goal of HT is to develop a detailed and mechanistic understanding of not just the tumor cell and tumor mutations, but also all the components of the host microenvironment that influence cancer and the response to cancer therapy. These interactions are best studied by integrating knowledge and paradigms from many disciplines, including those not typically associated with cancer biology and oncology. In particular, in this renewal HT has taken advantage of the strength of its membership to explicitly incorporate individuals with imaging and modeling expertise to rigorously investigate the scientific goals of HT, which are to: ? Identify and validate molecular targets involved in communication between the tumor and host that contribute to tumor progression using sequencing and antibodies, probes and small molecules, imaging and computational modeling ? Develop in vitro and in vivo systems to test therapeutics and determine their mechanism of action ? Develop new methodologies capable of discovering and validating novel therapeutic targets ? Establish dynamic, multi-disciplinary collaborations that will accelerate these discoveries With these larger goals in mind, the strong expertise of the program is focused on cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions, angiogenesis and vasculogenesis, inflammation and tumor imaging and modeling. There are 39 program members from 15 departments and four schools with $7.6M in NCI funding and $6.4M in other peer-reviewed cancer-related funding. Out of 579 publications, 16% are intra-programmatic and 38% are inter-programmatic. Members also have 150 collaborative publications with investigators at other institutions.