UofL, Owensboro system team for cancer research
Donald Miller, M.D., Ph.D., director of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, described the potential of plant-made pharmaceuticals as "limitless."
The University of Louisville and the Owensboro Medical Health System (OMHS) are partnering to develop cancer-fighting drugs and vaccines derived from tobacco and other plant sources.
The partnership, announced Feb. 15 by UofL President James Ramsey, Ph.D., James Graham Brown Cancer Center Director Donald M. Miller, M.D., Ph.D., and OMHS President Jeff Barber, Ph.D., will "take advantage of synergies between the nationally-known drug development research program at UofL's James Graham Brown Cancer Center and the unique resources available in Owensboro for plant-based pharmaceuticals," Ramsey said.
UofL researchers Kenneth Palmer, Ph.D., and Keith Davis, Ph.D., experts in plant biotechnology, already are based in Owensboro. They are collaborating with the Brown Cancer Center's A. Bennett "Ben" Jenson, M.D., and Shin-je Ghim, Ph.D., the researchers behind the cervical cancer vaccine released last year, to develop a second-generation vaccine grown in tobacco plants.
The tobacco-based process, more cost effective than most other methods, involves inserting genes needed for vaccine development into a virus that grows in the plants or directly into the tobacco genome. The leaves of the plants are then harvested, processed and purified to derive a key vaccine ingredient. The process takes advantage of a state-of-the-art facility in Owensboro, owned by Kentucky Bioprocessing, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of OMHS.
Four new labs have been created at OMHS' Mitchell Memorial Cancer Center to house the program, which Davis will direct. The center initially will employ three researchers with a long-term goal of attracting up to 10 scientists.
"The future for plant-made pharmaceuticals and the potential benefits to cancer research and treatment are limitless," said Miller. "This partnership is a great opportunity for Brown Cancer Center researchers who already have more than a dozen new drugs in development."
Ramsey noted that the partnership "has a great deal of potential benefit for citizens in Owensboro, Louisville, Kentucky and beyond."
"The benefits are employment, the development of new industries and potential return of licensing fees and other revenue to Kentucky," he said. "But the ultimate benefit -- one that we have seen this year with the introduction of the cervical cancer vaccine -- will be in preventing diseases that devastate so many of our citizens."
Barber agreed.
"This is an opportunity for intellectual and manufacturing expertise -- both developed right here in Kentucky -- to truly make a difference for patients with cancer and other chronic illnesses," he said.
