Lucia Borriello, PhD, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cancer and Cellular Biology at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, and Iyad Obeid, PhD, an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the College of Engineering at Temple University, each received $100,000 research grants today from the PA Breast Cancer Coalition (PBCC).
“I am honored to receive this award from such a prestigious organization that is focused on fighting breast cancer,” said Borriello, who is also a member of the Cancer Signaling and Microenvironment Research Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Her research focuses on understanding how the tumor microenvironment, which consists of normal cells in the immediate vicinity of cancer cells, promotes breast tumor dormancy and metastasis.
Borriello plans to use the PBCC funding to determine how dormant cancer cells escape the toxicity of chemotherapy treatments, which can lead to stage IV metastatic breast cancer after treatments. Her research will study the mechanisms of chemoresistance and aims to develop more targeted treatment options and hopefully prevent recurrence for breast cancer patients.
Borriello stressed that nothing ever comes from just one principal investigator. “This award reflects a unique and wonderful supportive and collaborative environment at Temple and Fox Chase. This award absolutely would not have been possible without the support of colleagues and mentors,” she said.
Obeid, co-principal investigator Joseph Picone, PhD, and their team plan to use artificial intelligence to analyze cancer biopsy results to create more efficient reports for pathologists. The AI will estimate the stage of any cancers detected and provide supporting evidence for the pathologist to consider.
“I’m very grateful for this funding from PBCC, which will allow us to push our research in biomedical signal processing and biomedical data analytics in new directions,” said Obeid, who also holds a secondary appointment in Temple’s Bioengineering Department.
Formed in 1993 by a group of breast cancer survivors, the PBCC advocates for the over 14,000 women in Pennsylvania diagnosed every year with breast cancer and serves as a resource for the hundreds of thousands more women currently living with the disease. PBCC does this through statewide educational programming and legislative advocacy. It has awarded more than $5.5 million to outstanding cancer researchers through its Research Grants Initiative.