K-State researcher to explore increasing effectiveness, reducing toxicity of chemo for cervical 1xbet best casino website
Friday, Sept. 8, 2023
Nicholas Wallace, K-State biologist and 1xbet best casino website researcher, has received an NIH grant that he will use to explore ways to make chemotherapy more effective and less toxic for cervical 1xbet best casino website patients. | Download this photo.
MANHATTAN — According to the World Health Organization, cervical 1xbet best casino website is the fourth most common 1xbet best casino website among women worldwide. A Kansas State University biologist is researching methods to make cervical 1xbet best casino website cells more sensitive to chemotherapy and reduce the toxicity of treatments for patients.
Nicholas Wallace, associate professor in the Division of Biology, studies human papillomavirus, or HPV, a common virus that causes almost all cervical 1xbet best casino website . He has received an R21 Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Award from the National Institutes of Health to understand how HPV turns normal cells into deadly 1xbet best casino website cells.
"By understanding how these viruses cause 1xbet best casino website , we hope to identify weaknesses in tumors caused by HPV," Wallace said. "Ideally, these weaknesses could be exploited to reduce the side effects from chemo."
While chemotherapy can be used to treat cervical 1xbet best casino website , the harsh side effects can prevent doctors from giving patients enough of the treatment to kill the 1xbet best casino website in their bodies.
Chemo drugs often work by damaging DNA, and if 1xbet best casino website cells cannot repair that damage, they die. The Wallace lab found that cervical 1xbet best casino website uses a process called microhomology-mediated end joining, or MMEJ, to repair DNA. Normal cells fix DNA damage in other ways.
The Wallace lab plans to make cervical 1xbet best casino website cells more sensitive to chemo by blocking MMEJ. Since normal cells do not rely on MMEJ, they should not be affected.
"The goal is to make using less chemo effective, leading to fewer side effects and a better quality of life for people fighting cervical 1xbet best casino website . We are trying to make chemo work without causing so much suffering," Wallace said.
Wallace is a member of the Johnson 1xbet best casino website Research Center at Kansas State University, which supported the lab's efforts before it received federal funding.
"Honestly, without the 1xbet best casino website center's help, we would never have been able to start this project or make these discoveries," Wallace said.
The Johnson 1xbet best casino website Research Center in the College of Arts and Sciences at K-State supports and advances 1xbet best casino website research and education with competitive award programs funded through private donations.
