Research Programs
The MBRCC is an inter- and multi-disciplinary matrix center, which encompasses patient care; basic, clinical/translational and population research; health prevention and promotion as well as education and outreach programs. The Cancer Center is comprised of over 80 members, drawn from among 33 departments and 8 Schools on the WVU campus with a research portfolio of private and peer-reviewed cancer research funding.
Our Research Programs combine the activities of groups of investigators who share common scientific interests and goals and participate in competitively funded research. They are highly interactive and lead to exchange of information, experimental techniques, and ideas that enhance the individual productivity of scientists and often result in collaborations and joint publications. Monthly Program meetings, seminars and annual retreats help promote increasing levels of scientific interaction.
The MBRCC has adopted a research philosophy of allowing patient populations to guide programmatic organization. Thus, the research Programs have a natural focus upon cancer health disparities in WV.
These are our active translational research programs:
This thematic research effort led by Steven Frisch, PhD, Program Leader, Dept. of Biochemistry, recognizes that tumor cells have evolved to overcome normal growth, differentiation and cell survival responses, and this evolution occurs through mutational, epigenetic, and tumor micro-environment-driven alterations in proteins that transduce intracellular signals. The research themes of this Program are to reveal novel signaling proteins and connections that are relevant to tumor cell behavior and to provide the molecular framework for the discovery of novel cancer therapeutics based on these pathways. (
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The Breast Cancer Program is jointly led by Dr. Michael Ruppert, CoBRE Internal Advisory Committee (IAC) member, Jo and Ben Statler Chair and Eminent Scholar in Breast Cancer and Professor of Biochemistry, and Dr. Jame Abraham, Bonnie Wells Wilson Distinguished Professor and Eminent Scholar in Breast Cancer and Section Chief Hematology/Oncology. Mechanisms that control metastasis of breast cancer, regulate therapeutic response and influence tumor stem cell phenotype are areas of focused investigation in this Program. (
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The Osborn Program brings together individuals with scientific and clinical interests in hematological malignancies and transplantation with co-leaders Laura F. Gibson, PhD, Professor, Microbiology, and William Tse, MD, Associate Professor, Medicine. The scientific elements include research of a basic and translational nature related to hematologic malignancies, with an effort to develop projects that capitalize on combined investigator expertise and interests. Thematic areas include the bone marrow as a unique tumor microenvironment, regulation of therapeutic response in hematologic malignancies and stem cell development with focus on factors that regulate the utility of stem cells in the transplantation setting. (
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The T2R2 is a joint Program of the MBRCC and the West Virginia Prevention Research Center. This Program, led by Kimberly Horn, EdD, Department of Community Medicine and Associate Center Director for Population Health Research, brings together a multidisciplinary group of scientists to conduct research related to tobacco prevention and control. Collaboration and communication across disciplines will accelerate the pace at which effective tools, services, policies, and knowledge are put into the community. Research seeks to understand, prevent, and treat tobacco use in WV by providing a platform by which scientists from multiple disciplines may better understand and reduce WV's tobacco problem. (
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West Virginia has one of the highest rates of lung cancer mortality in the nation. Based on this need a Program in lung cancer has been targeted for strategic research development. A given to the Center to establish the Program was named in honor of Sara Crile Allen and James Frederick Allen who both passed away from lung cancer by their children. This generous support and the need for expansion of lung cancer focused initiatives underlie our focus on expansion of this thematic area. (
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This is an emerging Program under the leadership of Suresh Madhavan, PhD, MBA Program Leader, and School of Pharmacy. Dr. Madhavan was recently awarded a 3-year AHRQ grant to establish the WV Collaborative Health Outcomes Research of Therapies and Services (CoHORTS) Center at WVU. There are three components of this program: Health Outcomes, Measurement and Improvement, and Access and Utilization. This emerging Program is consistent with the MBRCC focus on allowing the population to drive thematic areas of investment. (
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There is strong scientific data correlating obesity with initiation and progression of diverse malignancies, as well as an alarmingly high incidence of obesity, identified as a significant health disparity in WV. A team of basic science and prevention investigators based at WVU and Marshall University (MU), an institution with which we partner on several initiatives, is coalescing to develop collaborative opportunities for basic scientist teams, clinical researchers, and population scientists to investigate the relationship between obesity and cancer. (view Members)
Non-Programmatically Aligned Cancer Center Members
Non-aligned members are faculty who are not aligned with a specific research program but whose participation reaches across programs. Clinical faculty contribute to the clinical research effort by recruiting patients for clinical trials, and managing the care of patients according to the clinical research protocols. Others may offer expertise in statistics, or be involved in the operation of a
Shared Resource. (
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View All Cancer Center Research Program Members (Alphabetic by Program)