PATHWAYS University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Spring/Summer 2016 Bright Future Ahead for C STAR Students, page 12. Cancer Community @ Illinois FROM BENCH TO LIFE: Better prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment CONTENTS FROM THE DIRECTOR IN EVERY ISSUE 3 I am pleased to inform you that campus to inform cancer research on campus. I particularly appreciate the has re-affirmed its commitment to making efforts of professors Zeynep Madak-Erdogan, Food Science and From the Director our community successful after a review Human Nutrition, and Erik Nelson, Molecular and Integrative Steering Committee in 2015. In particular, I appreciate the Physiology, in this regard. In addition to launching their support provided by the IHSI, my home own research laboratories, they have worked tirelessly for the About the Community department of Bioengineering, and the community. College of Engineering in helping us Welcome New Faculty and Steering continue our work. It is a special pleasure We have much to look forward to in the upcoming year. We will Committee Members for our community to have Dr. Margaret continue to expand our educational programs, the researcHStart CC@IL Awards, Honors and Achievements Browne Huntt continue in her role of supporting and nurturing high school program; the undergraduate Cancer Scholars our efforts. Program, and the graduate the Cancer Scholars for Translational and Applied Research (C STAR) program. A new NIH-supported Another academic year has passed and our community continues to training program, the tissue microenvironment training program, RESEARCH 9 ON THE COVER innovate and expand. Our faculty ranks grow with innovative new will bring more students into our community and help our faculty Above, from left to right: Evijola Llabani, Mahdieh investigators. This year, for example, we welcome Dr. Anna Arthur collaborate more effectively in this area. Tumor Shape May Affect Metastasis Jadaliha, and Elizabeth Awick are the inaugural Cancer who is a joint University-Carle hire in the area of cancer nutrition. Scholars for Translational and Applied Research New Investment Boosts Cancer Drug PAC-1 Trials Our community members continue to excel in conducting notable While the past few years have seen us establish and grow, over the (C STAR) program graduate students. Read more about studies, obtaining federal grants and receiving various awards. Our next few weeks, we will be soliciting ideas from the community this innovative CC@IL educational program from each first cohort of Cancer Scholars for Translational and Applied regarding areas of research interests. In the fall, we plan to student’s perspective, on page 12. Research (C STAR) students was extremely successful, and took have meetings and workshops with you—our community and TRANSLATIONAL IMPACT 11 advantage of the opportunity to interact with our Carle partners partners—to hear from you in real-time, but also to keep you Surgical Probe Saves Healthy Tissue within the clinical setting. We are a community of students (high abreast of our collective activities. PATHWAYS school, undergraduate, graduate and postdocs), staff, faculty, and A publication of the Cancer Community at Illinois, community members. The 2016-17 academic year will be an exciting one for our community and we hope you will join us on this continued EDUCATION 12 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Each issue highlights the interdisciplinary and translational work This year, the Cancer Community at Illinois also launched an journey. Bright Future Ahead for C STAR Program, Students being done within the community by faculty, staff, advocacy group geared toward bringing in patients and caregivers students, and external partners. ResearcHStart Update STEERING COMMITTEE ENGAGEMENT 14 Director: Rohit Bhargava Project Manager: Margaret Browne Huntt National Cancer Moonshot Initiative Town Hall Meeting Managing Editor: Ashley Lawrence Cancer Research Advocacy Group at U of I Contributing Writers: Elizabeth Ahlberg, Margaret Browne Huntt, Sue Johnson, Ashley Lawrence, Meghan Olin, Diana Yates, Beckman Institute Communications Office STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS 16 Photography: Ashley Lawrence, L. Brian Stauffer, Thompson-McClellan Photography Camp Kesem Milan K. Bagchi Stephen A. Boppart Timothy M. Fan Barbara Fiese H. Rex Gaskins Design: Jason M. Bentley Molecular & Electrical & Computer Veterinary Clinical Human Development Animal Sciences Love Your Melon Integrative Physiology Engineering Medicine & Family Studies GRANTS AND PUBLICATIONS 18 U of I Gets New Institutional Research Training Grant from the NIH Bhargava Lab Receives Funding for Cancer Imaging William G. Helferich Benita S. Hillary Klonoff-Cohen William D. O’Brien, Jr. Edward J. Roy Food Science & Katzenellenbogen Kinesiology & Electrical & Computer Pathology Human Nutrition Molecular & Community Health Engineering Integrative Physiology PATHWAYS Spring/Summer 2016 3 WELCOME NEW STEERING ABOUT THE COMMUNITY COMMITTEE MEMBERS economic development resources for collective success, we focus campus attention on cancer to build an environment that enables The Cancer Community at Illinois is pleased to welcome five H. REX GASKINS new members to its steering committee: John Erdman, Brendan IN EVERY ISSUE IN EVERY faculty, staff, and students to achieve goals in this area. H. Rex Gaskins obtained his PhD in Harley, Thenkurussi (Kesh) Kesavadas, Zeynep Madak- nutritional sciences with a research Erdogan, and Erik Nelson. We are also pleased to report that We also catalyze large projects, specifically focused on applying focus in cell biology from the University H. Rex Gaskins will begin serving as the chair of the Cancer science, engineering, and technology to cancer. Believing that of Georgia in 1989. From 1989-92, Community at Illinois steering committee. These faculty members our unique and comprehensive strengths enable us to mount he completed postdoctoral studies will begin their duties in August 2016. challenges that few other universities are poised to consider, in mouse genetics at The Jackson we seek to develop projects and training programs that lead to Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. He significant research and translational gains while providing novel JOHN ERDMAN is now a professor at the University opportunities for our students. John Erdman is Emeritus Professor of Illinois with appointments in the of food science and human nutrition, Departments of Animal Sciences and Pathobiology, the Division The CC@IL is a program of the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences professor of internal medicine and of Nutritional Sciences, and the Institute for Genomic Biology. Initiative (IHSI) and is also supported by the Beckman Institute professor of nutrition in the Division of llinois researchers continue to make strides to improve cancer for Advanced Science and Technology and the Department of I Nutritional Sciences at the University Research in his laboratory focuses on host-intestinal microbiota detection, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, and quality of life. Bioengineering. of Illinois at Urbana. Dr. Erdman’s interactions as they pertain toinflammatory disorders and colorectal training and expertise encompass cancer and redox regulation of cell fate. A particular interest has The Cancer Community at Illinois (CC@IL) is the focal point To learn more about our programs, activities, and opportunities the nutritional and physiological been microbial mechanisms of hydrogen disposal in the colon for cancer-related activities across campus and helps nucleate new and to get involved with the community, please visit our website, biochemistry of man and animals. He and how hydrogen sulfide (H2S), the respiratory end product of programs and ideas to advance cancer research and healthcare. cancer.illinois.edu. We welcome your interest and look forward has authored over 200 original research articles on these subjects hydrogenotrophic, sulfate-reducing bacteria, impacts the colonic Bringing together campus research, education, engagement, and to seeing you at one of our events very soon. and has over 350 total publications including other articles and epithelium. His lab demonstrated that H2S modulates the chapters. His H-Index in the Web of Science is 50. expression of genes involved in cell-cycle progression and triggers both inflammatory and DNA repair responses in nontransformed Dr. Erdman is a member of a variety of professional organizations intestinal epithelial cells, and together with Professor Michael including the American Society for Nutrition (ASN), the Institute Plewa, provided the first evidence that exogenous H2S is a of Food Technologists (IFT), and the American Heart Association potent genotoxin at concentrations many-fold less than have WELCOME NEW FACULTY (AHA). He is past President of the American Society for been measured in the human colon. They then proved that H2S Nutritional Sciences (now ASN), has been elected Fellow for ASN, induces DNA damage in the absence of cellular metabolism, and AHA and IFT. He has served on 27 committees for the Institute that this damage was mediated by free radicals. Most recently, they of Medicine (generally through the Food and Nutrition Board demonstrated that the colonic mucosa of healthy human subjects is oncology dietitian nutritionist at Carle Cancer Center. Prior to [FNB]), National Academy of Sciences (NAS). He served on the persistently colonized by all the three groups of hydrogenotrophic joining Illinois and the Carle Cancer Center Dr. Arthur earned a FNB for nine years,