TRIUMPH-IBC
Translating Research Insights at UT Austin and MD Anderson into Progress & Hope for Inflammatory Breast Cancer
Protein-based drugs are the fastest growing pharmaceutical sector and have helped many millions of patients. These therapeutics include antibodies help the immune system attack tumor cells and enzymes and starve tumors of essential nutrients. While these treatments have helped many patients with breast cancer, certain types of breast cancer, including inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), are still very difficult to treat. In addition, the 5-year-survival rate for patients with breast cancer that has metastasized is just 30%, and IBC patients often present with metastases at diagnosis. These two types account for almost half of all breast cancer deaths because they don't respond well to standard treatments and often develop treatment resistance.
To address this clinical need, breast cancer experts from MD Anderson have teamed up with experts in discovery and development of protein therapeutics from UT Austin. Together, they will leverage the clinical knowledge and patient samples available at MD Anderson to identify new potential targets for treatment. This will allow UT Austin experts to develop initial antibody and enzyme-based therapeutics for evaluation at MD Anderson. Those with promise will be further improved using cutting edge machine learning approaches.
This collaboration will directly impact development of new therapies intended to improve outcomes for patients with aggressive breast cancers and will lay the foundation for a future joint Center of Excellence.
Team Members
MD Anderson
Bisrat Debeb, Associate Professor
Breast Medical Oncology
Wendy Woodward, Professor and Chair ad interim
Breast Radiation Oncology
UT Austin
Jennifer Maynard, Professor
Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
Mark Badeaux, Research Associate
Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
Axel Brilot, Research Associate
Center for Biomedical Research Support
Brant Gracia, Research Associate
Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
Adam Klivans, Professor
Computer Science, College of Natural Sciences
Annalee Nguyen, Research Assistant Professor
Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
Everett Stone, Research Associate Professor
Molecular Biosciences, College of Natural Sciences
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