Engineering enlists in battle against cancer

Cancer research and treatment gains momentum later this fall with the opening of the new James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, part of The Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center’s $1.1 billion expansion. 

That Ohio State is a world leader in cancer care and innovation is not breaking news. But what may surprise some is the important role engineering serves in the fight against cancer. 

The College of Engineering’s faculty and researchers are currently working with colleagues at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center and across the university on more than 35 cancer-related research projects. From conducting fundamental research on how cancer spreads to creating new diagnostic technologies to engineering better medicines and treatment options—Buckeye engineers are working diligently to be part of the cure. 

“We aren’t the only university in the world that has integrated engineering and cancer research,” said College of Engineering Associate Dean for Research Randy Moses, “but we are among the select few that do it in such a comprehensive, connected and robust fashion.”

Shining a light on cancer

Cancer survivor Jessica Winter’s nanoparticle research is being used to diagnose cancer and develop personalized treatment plans. The chemical and biomolecular engineering professor developed nanoparticles that are both fluorescent and magnetic. Researchers are currently using the particles to isolate circulating tumor cells and determine what biomarkers the cells express, which enables personalized medicine approaches and treatments.

In addition to magnetic nanoparticles, Winter has developed two other nanocomposites with strong potential for applications in biomedical imaging, clinical diagnostics and pharmaceutical separations: composite quantum dots and magnetic quantum dots. She is working to commercialize the technology through Core Quantum Technologies, a university spin-out she co-founded with Gang Ruan, a chemical and biomolecular engineering adjunct professor at Ohio State; and chemical engineering alumnus Kunal Parikh. 

Tracking the spread of breast cancer 

New research by a team of Ohio State medical and engineering researchers suggests that a protein only recently linked to cancer has a significant effect on the risk that breast cancer will spread, and that lowering the protein’s level in cell cultures and mice reduces chances for the disease to extend beyond the initial tumor. 

The team previously determined that modifying a single gene to reduce this protein’s level in breast cancer cells lowered the cells’ ability to migrate away from the tumor site.

Douglas Kniss, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and senior author of the study, teamed with Samir Ghadiali, associate professor of biomedical engineering, to hone in on the mechanical aspects of this work. 

Understanding the protein’s effects on genes is just one piece of the puzzle: The effects of physical and mechanical forces on cancer progression is a burgeoning, but still new, area of research.

“We’re seeing now that the mechanics are going to drive whether cancer cells can migrate faster or slower or break away or not. The mechanics have the possibility of being a more specific diagnostic marker,” Ghadiali said.

Adding another dimension for researchers

While pursuing graduate studies at Ohio State, Jed Johnson (’05, MS ’08 MS, PhD ’10, materials science and engineering) combined nanotechnology with a medically-approved polymer to create a unique medium that enables scientists to study the invasive behavior of tumor cells and test the effectiveness of drugs in the lab. 

For generations, scientists have used petri dishes to grow and study living cells in the laboratory. But the cancer cells they observed and treated in this two-dimensional environment behaved much differently than they did in three-dimensional human tissue. In contrast, nanofibers form spider web-like three-dimensional cell cultures in which cancer cells move and climb much as they do in human tissue.

After winning an Ohio State business plan competition in 2009, Johnson co-founded Nanofiber Solutions with Materials Science and Engineering Professor John Lannutti, the faculty member who oversaw the technology’s development. The Columbus-based spinout produces cell culture products that use the polymer nanofibers.

Pushing diagnostics ahead

Alumnus Kinshuk Mitra (’14, biomedical engineering) created a novel diagnostic technology that provides more effective and earlier cancer detection—while he was just an undergrad. His biotechnology brainchild is a microbead mesh that quickly and cost-effectively separates cancer cells from healthy cells in blood samples. Cells being shed from primary tumors into the blood stream are one of the earliest physiological signs of cancer. 

The university recognized Mitra’s efforts by naming him the 2013 Student Innovator of the Year.

Mitra teamed with fellow Buckeye engineers to commercialize the technology through startup company OncoFilter. His collaborators include Brett Geiger (’14, biomedical engineering), and sophomores Aaron Maharry (electrical engineering) and Preethi Chidambaram (biomedical engineering). Professor and Stefanie Spielman Chair in Cancer Imaging Michael Tweedle is OncoFilter’s chief scientific advisor. The advisory board also includes researchers from Ohio State, Stanford and MIT.