Renowned breast and colon cancer researcher, Michael Brattain, Ph.D., has joined the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center as the new associate director for basic research.
Since 2003, Dr. Brattain (pronounced brat-ten) has served as the senior vice president for basic science at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) in Buffalo, N.Y. He also has been chairman of the department of pharmacology and therapeutics of the Grace Drug Center at RPCI.
Dr. Brattain is in the top 1 percent of life scientists, in terms of grant awards from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institutes of Health, as well as the number of times his work is referenced by other scientists.
“Mike is an incredibly valuable addition to the cancer center,” said Ken Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center. “Given his personal research in drug development and his vast experience in NCI-designated cancer centers, he will provide valuable leadership in the Eppley Cancer Center.”
As associate director for basic research, Dr. Brattain will oversee all basic science research initiatives at the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center, including collaborative and translational research opportunities.
“As associate director of basic science, I would hope that ultimately we would reach a comprehensive cancer center status,” Dr. Brattain said. “Right now, we’re an NCI-designated cancer center and that’s great. There are a lot of places that would like to be an NCI-designated cancer center. But, going forward, we want to become a comprehensive center, which changes the breadth and scope, but not the excellence.”
Becoming an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center requires expanding the cancer center’s scope of translational research, which already is part of UNMC’s campuswide strategic plan, Dr. Brattain said.
A comprehensive cancer center must demonstrate a depth and breadth of research activities in each of three major areas: laboratory, clinical, and population-based research, with substantial transdisciplinary research that bridges these scientific areas. An NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center also must demonstrate professional and public education and dissemination of clinical and public health advances into the community it serves.
An Oklahoma native, Dr. Brattain also will continue to conduct research focusing on translational research in colon and breast cancers. In fact, he currently has four grants from the National Cancer Institute. Three of these grants have been continuously funded for more than 20 years.
More specifically, Dr. Brattain’s research is focused on the identification and exploitation of new molecular targets in cancer.
Dr. Brattain and his collaborators are looking at tumor suppressor molecules or molecules that keep tumors from arising. They believe that these molecules are lost or inactivated in cancer. Currently, clinical trials are targeting these molecules with drugs that inhibit several members of a family of enzymes linked to the process. Unfortunately, these drugs are highly toxic. Dr. Brattain is working to more precisely pinpoint the specific enzymes involved in order to decrease toxicity.
They also are looking at oncogenic molecules, which are molecules that are over- expressed or mutated. Such molecules allow cells to increase instead of dying off as they should when subjected to various forms of stress that damage the cell’s genome. Dr. Brattain and his team are trying to identify the processes that enable this inappropriate increase in cell survival, with the ultimate goal of developing drugs to prevent them.
Four people have come from RPCI to work in Dr. Brattain’s laboratory. Gillian Howell, Ph.D., a research assistant professor, and graduate student, Wang Wang, will be working on the tumor suppressor research projects. Peter Hu, Ph.D., a research instructor, and graduate student, Neka Simms, will be working on the oncogenic molecule research projects.
Jing (Jenny) Wang, Ph.D., also joined the cancer center faculty from RPCI on June 1. She will have her own laboratory and continue to collaborate with Dr. Brattain and other medical center faculty on tumor suppressor and oncogenic molecule research projects. Dr. Wang will be an assistant professor at the Eppley Institute.
UNMC is the only public health science center in the state. Its educational programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other institution. Through their commitment to education, research, patient care and outreach, UNMC and its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, have established themselves as one of the country’s leading centers in cancer, transplantation biology, bioterrorism preparedness, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, genetics, biomedical technology and ophthalmology. UNMC’s research funding from external sources now exceeds $80 million annually and has resulted in the creation of more than 2,400 highly skilled jobs in the state. UNMC’s physician practice group, UNMC Physicians, includes 513 physicians in 50 specialties and subspecialties who practice primarily in The Nebraska Medical Center. For more information, go to UNMC’s Web site at www.unmc.edu.