Signaling and Biotechnology Research Program

Wake Forest University Health Sciences, Winston-Salem NC

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

SIGNALING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY (SBT) PROGRAM: PROJECT SUMMARY The Signaling and Biotechnology (SBT) Program was newly organized by Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center (WFBCCC) leadership in 2018 and integrates basic, translational, and clinical research around developing novel agents and devices for improving cancer diagnosis and treatment. More explicitly, the SBT Program aims to dissect key signaling pathways regulating cancer progression and metastasis and to integrate this knowledge with the development of innovative technologies and therapeutics. The SBT Program comprises 36 cancer-focused investigators representing nine departments from two Schools, the Wake Forest School of Medicine and the Virginia Tech – Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences. The SBT Program is led by two well-established scientists with distinct research expertise – Rafael Davalos, PhD, and Yong Lu, PhD; both Program Co-Leaders have distinct, yet complementary expertise. They lead the SBT Program by guiding its scientific direction to ensure alignment with the cancer burden within the WFBCCC’s catchment area, catalyzing transdisciplinary collaborations, and promoting career development of junior investigators. Among many recent reported discoveries and observations, SBT Program members have (1) developed an innovative technology to label metabolites, resulting in a sensor of lactate and offering a new revolutionary strategy for targeting cancer and viral infection; (2) designed a new microfluidic platform known as contactless dielectrophoresis which isolates circulating tumor cells from blood and serves as a marker-free method to identify tumor initiating cells; (3) invented NanoKnife®, a technology that ablates undesirable tissue in a non-thermal manner known as irreversible electroporation; this technology has proven to be optimal for reversing local immunosuppression, activating the innate immune system, and engaging the adaptive immune system which can improve patient responsiveness to immunotherapeutics; (4) identified a new subset of T cells, Th9 cells, establishing a new paradigm for T cell-based cancer therapy; and (5) invented TheraBionic P1, a device that emits low levels of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields for the systemic treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. The SBT Program’s total peer-reviewed, direct funding base is $5.5M. Since 2016, this highly collaborative group of investigators authored a total of 242 program-related research publications, of which 72 (30%) were inter-programmatic, 42 (17%) were intra-programmatic, and 168 (69%) represented inter- institutional collaborations. Just over 17% of these publications involved seminal discoveries and translational breakthroughs published in top-tier journals such as Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Cancer Cell, Nature Immunology, Nature Cell Biology, Biomaterials, Molecular Cell, Nature Communications, and Advanced Science. In 2020, the SBT Program conducted more than 100 clinical research studies, and even during the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 285 patients were accrued to these studies.