Pelotonia Idea Grant funds research to reverse engineer tumors

Modeling tumors in the microenvironment could someday inhibit tumor growth, according to Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Jonathan W. Song, who was awarded a Pelotonia Idea Grant for his research, “3-D View of Micro-Environment to Study Development of Advanced Cancer.” 

The $100,000 award in the new Junior Investigator Award category is for two years. Song’s research study is one of ten compelling studies that have received funding from Pelotonia, the annual cycling event that has raised more than $106 million for cancer research efforts at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James). In the past six years, 89 research teams have received Pelotonia Idea Grants and a total of $948,348 will be awarded in the latest round of funding.

Song’s study investigates how the conditions of a tumor become abnormal, creating a hostile microenvironment that activates cancer cells. The study will use microtechnology and tissue engineering to develop a disease “model” of advanced cancers enabling 3D imaging and analysis. Knowledge gained from the study will aid in development of therapeutic strategies for stopping tumor growth. Collaborators in the study are Dr. Mike Ostrowski, co-director of the Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics program at the OSUCCC, and mechanical engineering graduate student Alex Avendano. Avendano explained that modeling tumors in 3D allows them to behave more like they do inside the body, potentially gaining insight into tumor growth and new strategies to contain them.

“Cancer is not only immensely difficult to treat, it is very challenging to study,” Song stated. “We blend engineering design and cancer biology to 'reverse engineer' tumors in their microenvironment in a controlled experimental platform to help accelerate the development of new treatments.”

Song is principal investigator of the Microsystems for Mechanobiology and Medicine Laboratory at Ohio State and a member of the Solid Tumor Biology Program at OSUCCC. 

“In order to make breakthrough progress in cancer research, we must continue to find new ways to fund the bold new ideas put forth by top scientific minds,” said Michael Caligiuri, MD, director of the OSUCCC and CEO of the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. “That’s what Pelotonia funds allow us to do.”

Song also has been a rider in Caligiuri’s Team Buckeye peloton since 2014. Team Buckeye has raised more than $200,000 collectively for this year’s event to cure cancer, 100 percent of which directly funds research.

Pelotonia 2016 takes place August 5-7, 2016. For more information, visit pelotonia.org

by Gail Dickson, Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering