Wei-Zen Wei, Ph.D., the Herrick Chair of Cancer Research at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and professor in the departments of Oncology and Immunology/Microbiology at Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSU SOM), and Nerissa Viola-Villegas, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Oncology at Karmanos and WSU SOM, have secured a two-year, $368,445 grant through the NIH/NCI for their research, “Directing Cancer Immunotherapy and Real Time ImmunoPET”. The grant number is 1R21CA216648.
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging is commonly used in cancer diagnoses. Drs. Wei and Viola-Villegas will expand the technology to cancer immunotherapy by imaging the dendritic cells in tumors. Dendritic cells are specialized white blood cells that can trigger tumor-fighting immunity. Treatment that brings more dendritic cells into the tumor is more likely to cure cancer. Drs. Wei and Viola-Villegas will develop new imaging probes to detect dendritic cells in the tumor. They believe that if this new PET imaging technology successfully measures dendritic cells and predicts treatment outcome, it will be a strong tool in guiding patient treatments.
We congratulate Drs. Wei and Viola-Villegas on receiving this grant funding for the research.