Annette Khaled, who leads the College of Medicine鈥檚 cancer research division, recently received more than $2 million in grant funding to expand her work with Z-TOP, a peptide she discovered in 2012 that stops the spread of metastatic cancer cells. She is collaborating with colleagues to design a better cellular delivery system for the treatment.

An almost $258,000 grant through the Casey DeSantis Cancer Research Program鈥檚 Florida Cancer Innovation Fund will help Khaled鈥檚 team further their efforts to stop metastatic breast cancer by disrupting the cellular activities that allow cancer cells to spread.鈥疉nd nearly $1.8 million in funding through the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), in partnership with the Orlando Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, will allow her to develop the treatment for men with late-stage metastatic prostate cancer.

Khaled says her research has expanded thanks to the support of the Orlando Sports Foundation, which funds cancer research through sports-related fundraising events. The nonprofit鈥檚 flagship event is the StaffDNA Cure Bowl, a unique college football game with the goal of ending cancer.

鈥淲hen you get funding for a research project, you can only do the work that is described in the specific aims of the project,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he donations from the Orlando Sports Foundation do not have this limitation.鈥疻ithout their support, I would not have been awarded the DOD grant. Using the donations, I was able to generate the preliminary data that made me competitive for the DOD and the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) grants we received this year.鈥�

Alan Gooch 鈥�84 鈥�89MA, CEO of the Orlando Sports Foundation and executive director of the StaffDNA Cure Bowl, says he鈥檚 grateful to continue partnering with 麻豆原创.

鈥淲e鈥檙e all about bringing teams together,鈥� says Gooch, who played football at 麻豆原创 and later coached the team for 22 years. 鈥淥ur relationship with Dr. Khaled is outstanding, and we are honored to continue to partner with her and sponsor her research.鈥�

The Science Behind Khaled鈥檚 Work

The two new grants expand Khaled鈥檚 portfolio of research to understand how and why cancer cells spread.

鈥淐ancer treatments are very effective when the cancer is localized, but the problem is that cancer doesn鈥檛 stay at one site,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t spreads to other sites of the body. Usually, the cause of death is not the primary cancer, but metastasis.鈥疨reventing that can be a cancer cure, and that is what we鈥檙e looking at here in our lab.鈥�

Khaled鈥檚 latest research focuses on the spread of cell fragments called extracellular vesicles that are shed by cancer cells during the early stages of the disease. These vesicles are resilient to early cancer treatment and can travel through the bloodstream, acting as tumor 鈥渟eeds鈥� by preparing future sites for metastasis.

The vesicles are mediated by a molecular structure called a chaperonin. Chaperonins help fold proteins that support the body鈥檚 normal cell function. But cancer cells hijack the folding process because they need more chaperonins to grow and spread.

Khaled鈥檚 breast cancer research project aims to distinguish which chaperonins help facilitate cancer cells’ growth and stop them without harming normal chaperonins. She hopes to develop a treatment that could regularly deliver her peptide to cancer patients to prevent metastasis. Patients, Khaled says, could receive her treatment while they are receiving chemotherapy and radiation to kill the original tumor.

Her prostate cancer research will confirm the chaperonin as a viable treatment target for prostate cancer, and if so, optimize the peptide specifically for use in men who have lethal forms of metastatic prostate cancer.鈥疷nlike breast cancer treatment, which seeks to prevent metastasis, prostate cancer research will see if a strengthened variant of the peptide can eliminate cancer that has already spread.

Fielding a Team Against Cancer

In the lab, Khaled鈥檚 peptide has shown success in preventing cancer cells from spreading. The challenge is how to engineer and deliver the treatment. For that, she is collaborating with Lorraine Leon, associate professor of materials science at 麻豆原创鈥檚 College of Engineering and Computer Science.

They are working to create a system that delivers the peptide to where the cancer has spread and at the same time protects the peptide from being destroyed in the bloodstream by the body鈥檚 immune and digestive systems.

鈥淭he College of Engineering and Computer Science is a great collaborator,鈥� Khaled says. 鈥淣ormally this peptide is very fragile but we鈥檙e working with materials sciences to create a protected peptide and then find [a] way to get it to the right spot. By having a variety of expertise and interests, we can work together to find new technologies and new ways to combat cancer.鈥�

Leon specializes in biomaterials and polymer science. Her team studies how to build and program molecules to form assemblies for many purposes, including biomedical transport. She developed a specialized polymer that binds to the peptide, forming a large, water-soluble molecule. This allows it to travel easily through the bloodstream while keeping the peptide intact as it reaches its destination. The system drives the molecules to form self-assembled structures called micelles, which are assemblies of around 100 or so individual molecules, Leon says.

鈥淚n addition, we can tune the shape of these micelles, decorate them with targeting elements and make mixed versions of them where we incorporate different functionalities,鈥� she says. 鈥淥ur original designs have had great preliminary results so far. We will continue to optimize the designs moving forward.鈥�

Leon is excited to team up with Khaled, and she says she looks forward to achieving more breakthroughs together as the projects progress.

鈥淲orking with Dr. Khaled has been very fun,鈥� she says. 鈥淥ur labs really complement each other. This is the beginning of a very long collaboration.鈥�

Khaled and Leon are also working with Cancer Specialist and Associate Professor of Medicine Deborah Altomare, along with Burnett School of Biomedical Science Biostatistician Xiang Zhu, on the prostate cancer research project.

Khaled says strong research and community collaborations are critical to beating cancer.

鈥淐ancer is a tough enemy,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut we have a great team.鈥�

These studies are the first phase of preclinical research that may lead to new drugs in the future.

This work was supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs,听in the amount of聽$1,771,271,听through the聽Prostate Cancer Research Program Idea Development Award聽under Award No.聽HT9425-25-1-0487. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the聽U.S. Department of Defense.

Researchers鈥� Credentials:

Khaled joined 麻豆原创 in 2002 after receiving her doctoral degree from the University of Florida and doing post-graduate training at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). A tenured professor, she has been funded by multiple R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the FDOH. She has published more than 100 manuscripts and abstracts and presented her research at numerous national and international scientific meetings. She has been recognized with research, leadership and teaching awards, including the NCI CURE Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to her research responsibilities, she teaches molecular immunology to 麻豆原创 graduate students and serves as the College of Medicine鈥檚 assistant dean for faculty affairs.

Leon joined 麻豆原创 in 2017 after postdoctoral appointments at the University of聽Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, and she received her doctoral degree from the City University of New York. She is a recently tenured professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where she also serves as the education director for the U.S. National Science Foundation PREM Center for Quantum Materials Innovation and Education Excellence. She has published more than 20 refereed publications. Other accomplishments include her being named a 2019 Emerging Investigator by the Journal of Materials Chemistry B, receiving an NSF CAREER award in 2021 and a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty award in 2022.

Alicja Copik and Debbie Altomare each received $100,000 from the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation (FBCF), a group focused on supporting innovative research that will create new and better ways to diagnose, treat and perhaps cure the disease.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, dedicated to promoting awareness, screening and prevention of the disease.

Annette Khaled, who leads the College of Medicine鈥檚 Cancer Research Division, noted that 麻豆原创 competed with older, larger programs such as the University of Miami, the Moffitt Cancer Center and the University of Florida to earn the funding. Khaled received 麻豆原创鈥檚 first FBCF grant in 2012 and since then, seven College of Medicine faculty researchers have earned funding totaling almost $1 million. This is the first year two College of Medicine cancer researchers have earned the state cancer support in the same year.

鈥淭his shows we have tremendous intellectual capital in cancer research,鈥� Khaled says. 鈥淔BCF is looking for new, innovative ideas in fighting breast cancer and they are supporting 麻豆原创.鈥�

Copik focuses her research on better arming the body鈥檚 natural killer (NK) cells to wipe out cancer. NK cells are the first line of defense in warding off pathogens, such as viruses. Through genetic engineering and nanoparticle technology, Copik has developed NK cells that are better at recognizing and killing cancer cells. Such therapies are much easier on patients. NK cells can do their work without the debilitating impact that comes with current cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. And these energized NK cells can be donated to cancer patients from complete strangers without a risk of rejection.

The FBCF grant will help Copik refine her technologies to specifically fight breast cancer. She will also study how the most recent and still experimental treatment strategies against metastatic breast cancer may affect patients鈥� own NK cells. Because NK cells clear any residual tumor cells in the body, it鈥檚 important that new treatments don鈥檛 deplete the body鈥檚 natural fighters. With this knowledge, scientists can design better clinical trials and create more combination therapies that incorporate NK cells as additional cancer fighters.

“We need to harness innovation and innovative thinking to improve care.” 鈥� Alicja Copik, associate professor of medicine

Copik鈥檚 NK therapies are currently in clinical trials. She is also researching whether removing one of molecular 鈥渂rakes鈥� that cancer cells use to avoid being killed 鈥� either through antibodies or genetic engineering 鈥� can enhance NK cell anti-tumor power. In initial laboratory testing, this approach has shown strong results in killing neuroblastoma cancer cell lines, the most common cancer in infants.

鈥淲e need to focus on the quality of life for metastatic breast cancer patients,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e know chemo and radiation work, but they have drastic side effects. We need to harness innovation and innovative thinking to improve care.鈥�

Altomare has vast experience in cancer biology. Her focus is on the cellular pathways that can signal cancer cells to grow or help immunity cells better fight the disease. She is examining the role that inflammation plays in pancreatic cancer 鈥� one of the deadliest forms of the disease 鈥� and harnessing the body鈥檚 innate immunity to create new therapeutics for ovarian cancer.

One of the challenges of breast cancer research is the heterogeneity of breast tumors 鈥� meaning one patient may have a variety of cells in their tumor that is different from other patients. That makes it difficult for researchers and physicians to determine what exact molecular alternations occurred to cause the cancer and prescribe individualized treatments.

Altomare鈥檚 lab at the College of Medicine has been studying a particular growth factor called FGFR4 (fibroblast growth factor receptor 4) in breast cancer cells. Her work has discovered that while encouraging the growth of cancer cells, the growth receptor may also suppress immune cells.

She will use the FBCF funding to examine how the presence and absence of the growth factor and pathways in specific tumors impact their ability to spread and how they impact immunity. Her hope is that the discoveries will help create new metastatic breast cancer therapies.

鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at ways the tumor cells can be reprogramed to better react to therapies and not be so drug resistant,鈥� she says.

The College of Medicine鈥檚 Cancer Research Division, housed in the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, focuses its work on a variety of areas, including how patients鈥� genes play a role in their cancer risk, what causes cancer and cancer metastasis and discovering new ways to harness the body鈥檚 immune system to fight cancer.

In an effort to expand the use of AI in agriculture, several 麻豆原创 researchers will work together to develop several AI-driven technologies that aim to improve the industry鈥檚 field operations. The team is supported by a $2.74 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) – National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The funded project will specifically enhance the agricultural applications produced by the AI Institute for Transforming Workforce and Decision Support (AgAID), an institute funded by NIFA. Professor Manoj Karkee from Washington State University is the team鈥檚 leading collaborator of AgAID.

Leading the charge for 麻豆原创 is Professor Yunjun Xu of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He will use his expertise to develop AI methods for motion control and scheduling in agricultural robots. These autonomous ground robots are used to conduct several operations in open fields such as detecting diseases and harvesting crops.

Collaborating with Xu are Professor Ladislau B枚l枚ni of the Department of Computer Science and Assistant Professor Chen Chen from the Center for Research in Computer Vision. B枚l枚ni will strive to integrate AI into the manipulation of agricultural robotic arms to improve the way they interact with their physical environment, while Chen will investigate a new AI method for the sensors used in precision agriculture, a farming practice that uses technology to make more accurate and informed decisions.

Also on the project is chemistry Professor Swadeshmukul Santra, who will work with Chen and Xu to integrate AI into the analysis of pesticide residues.

The 麻豆原创 team hopes that these technologies will be of use to both current and future generations of farmers and AgAID researchers.

鈥淲e anticipate that each AI method will advance its respective state-of-the-art technology and can have performance superior to existing or traditional methods,鈥� Xu says. 鈥淲e also hope to inspire more people, especially younger generations, to join the U.S. agricultural sector workforce.鈥�

To spark an interest in agriculture, the 麻豆原创 researchers plan to coordinate various outreach activities for students including a summer exchange program and workshops. They also plan to develop a new course and training materials around this work, which will be facilitated with the help of graduate students.

The project is funded via the NIFA interagency application program in conjunction with the U.S. National Science Foundation.

About the Researchers

Xu joined 麻豆原创 as an assistant professor in 2008. He earned his doctoral degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Florida. His research interests include agricultural robots, control theory and flying vehicles. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

B枚l枚ni is a professor of computer science and the co-director of the AI Things Laboratory at 麻豆原创. He has secondary joint appointments in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Center for Research in Computer Vision. He is also a member of the 麻豆原创 Cluster for Disability, Aging and Technology. He received his doctoral and master鈥檚 degrees from Purdue University. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery and a member of the Upsilon Pi Epsilon honorary society.

Chen is an assistant professor at the Center for Research in Computer Vision and previously served as a postdoctoral scholar for the center. His main research interests are computer vision, image and video processing, and machine learning. He earned his doctoral degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Santra holds a doctorate in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. After graduating, he worked at the University of Florida (UF) as a postdoctoral researcher and later as a research assistant professor at the UF Department of Neurological Surgery and Particle Engineering Research Center. In 2005, Santra joined 麻豆原创 as an assistant professor at the NanoScience Technology Center, the Department of Chemistry and the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences. He is the director of the 麻豆原创 Materials Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture center, a USDA-NIFA-recognized Center of Excellence.

New research led by Kiminobu Sugaya, a stem cell researcher and neuroscientist at 麻豆原创鈥檚 , found that targeting a drug resistant mechanism in cancer stem cells significantly enhanced the efficacy of traditional cancer therapies 鈥� making them four times more effective against glioblastoma. Current FDA-approved drugs kill less than 25% of glioblastoma cancer stem cells (CSCs).

These cells are a subpopulation of cancer cells that are highly resistant to current therapies. Scientists theorize that cancer returns and spreads because CSCs remain in the body. That鈥檚 why they are exploring ways to kill them outright.

鈥淐ancer stem cells are bad stem cells that are programed to become a cancer,鈥� Sugaya says. 鈥淭hey withstand cancer therapies, raise their ugly head, regrow and metastasize.鈥�

Sugaya鈥檚 team developed a new drug delivery system by creating a technology that destroys the RNA, or ribonucleic acid, that the stem cells use as a blueprint to produce proteins. This unique strategy inhibits the expression of embryonic stem cell genes that are pivotal in CSC鈥檚 drug resistance. And because embryonic stem cell genes are not expressed in normal adult cells, this breakthrough approach reduces potential for side effects in healthy cells.

Jonhoi Smith is a doctoral student under Sugaya and the first author on their research paper published in the journal Genes. He said the treatment could increase life expectancy for glioblastoma patients.

鈥淭his treatment could be a precious gift for glioblastoma patients. When I think about the loved ones I鈥檝e lost in my life 鈥� my father, my grandmother 鈥� I often wish I could have had more time with them,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he idea of offering the potential of a whole new life to people who are facing a death sentence in less than a year means a lot to me.鈥�

One of the significant challenges in treating glioblastoma is effectively delivering treatments to the brain. That鈥檚 because the brain is protected from external germs and substances by the blood-brain barrier, which can also prevent treatments from reaching brain tissues.

To overcome this obstacle, Sugaya鈥檚 therapy is based on exosomes, nano-sized particles with a lipid membrane that are naturally produced by cells. Exosomes function as cellular communicators, transporting proteins, lipids and genetic material between cells, thereby influencing a wide array of biological processes and functions. Their efficiency in carrying molecules across various parts of the body has inspired scientists to investigate exosomes as potential drug delivery vehicles.

鈥淢any current drug delivery systems, including viruses, may cause side effects,鈥� Sugaya explains. 鈥淲e鈥檙e using the body鈥檚 natural delivery systems and have developed technologies to modify them to carry therapeutic molecules with targeted delivery to specific tissues.鈥�

Marvin Hausman is CEO of Exousia AI, the company that is funding the glioblastoma exosome preclinical research. He heard about Sugaya鈥檚 lab and says that when he visited the lab at 麻豆原创鈥檚 in Lake Nona, he was inspired by its capacity for innovative discoveries.

鈥淚 have thoroughly analyzed this exosome-based targeted drug delivery system many times, and the potential that this unique technology offers.鈥� Hausman says. 鈥淲e are embarking on a revolutionary new development in medicine.鈥�

Thanks to funding from Exousia AI, the research is advancing to mouse models carrying human glioblastoma, with preliminary results expected as early as this summer.

Sugaya has dedicated more than 40 years to neuroscience research focused on Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, with an emphasis on stem cells for the last 26 years. He moved to the U.S. after receiving his doctoral degree from the Science University of Tokyo in 1988. He joined 麻豆原创 as a professor in 2004. His cancer research began in 2010 when he discovered stemness gene expressions, the self-renewing and differentiating property that allows stem cells to grow and spread, in CSCs. He is recognized as an expert in the field of exosome research and recently received Florida Innovation Funding from the State Department of Health for his studies.

The medical school鈥檚 Cancer Research Division focuses on cancer biology 鈥� such as how patients鈥� genes play a role in their cancer risk, what causes cancer and cancer metastasis, and new ways to use the immune system to fight cancer. Their goal: Discover innovative, targeted treatments that attack at the cellular level what cancers cells need to survive, rather than chemotherapy and radiation that blast a patient鈥檚 entire system and cause strong side effects.

鈥淐ancer cells are like every other cell in your body, they need to survive, grow and get nutrients,鈥� says Annette Khaled, who leads 麻豆原创鈥檚 Cancer Research Division. 鈥淚f we can target those basic needs of cancer cells, then we have a therapy that not only works for breast cancer but works for many other cancers.鈥�

As the nation recognizes October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, here are five of 麻豆原创鈥檚 breast cancer research specialists.

Annette Khaled: Tracking Metastatic Breast Cancer for Better Treatment
Khaled’s research focuses on metastatic breast cancer, cells that leave the original tumor and spread.

鈥淏reast cancer, when it is detected in the breast, is almost 99% survivable, but when breast cancer spreads to other parts of the body and damages vital organs like the lungs and the brain, that is very hard to treat,鈥� she explained.

Her lab has discovered a new way to track metastatic cancer cells in the blood, a liquid biopsy, which could help identify cancer earlier and give patients more treatment options.

Cancer cells need a lot of proteins to survive and travel through the body. Khaled has identified a protein complex called a chaperonin that lets proteins fold into functional, three-dimensional shapes. All cells contain the chaperonin complex. But cancer cells have significantly higher levels because, as Khaled explains, 鈥渃ancer cells are hungry for protein.鈥� In the past few years, Khaled identified the chaperonin complex as a significant indicator of a cancer鈥檚 severity and has developed nanoparticle-based therapies to seek out the chaperonin complex in cancer cells and destroy it. Without this protein-folding mechanism, cancer cells starve and die.

Jackie Zhao: Why is Breast Cancer Resistant to Treatment?

Zhao wants to discover why metastasized breast cancer is resistant to even the most promising therapies. That understanding could unlock medicine鈥檚 ability to create cures for any type of cancer.

In his research, Zhao has found that metastasized cancer cells disarm the immune system, making therapies like immunotherapy, which can be incredibly effective, relatively inert.

鈥淭here are great anti-cancer therapies that work for other forms of cancer like melanoma, but metastasized breast cancer is resistant. What we try to do is figure out why,鈥� he says.聽 鈥淚f we can do that, we can make breast cancer sensitive to these very effective therapies as well.鈥�

Ratna Chakrabarti: Finding Marks to Better Predict Breast Cancer

When doctors treat and predict the progression of cancer, they often look for specific receptors which can act as markers to target treatment and predict cancer growth.

Chakrabarti is looking for new markers or alternative solutions to provide better tools for patient care. 聽Specific types of breast cancer like triple negative breast cancer, named because it does not possess three common receptors, can be difficult to treat.

鈥淲e want to find different targets which can be used as predictive markers,鈥� she says. 鈥淩ight now, we are working so that when patients come to the clinic, there will be different tools to understand the status of the disease and let them make an informed decision for treatment.鈥�

Robin Hines: Understanding Healthcare Disparities in Breast Cancer Treatment and Survival

Hines, from the medical school鈥檚 Department of Population Health Sciences, is fighting breast cancer from a community perspective.

His team found that while breast cancer mortality rates have declined over the last few decades, Black women are still twice as likely to die from breast cancer compared to other ethnicities. That finding, he says, is a call to action.

鈥淲e want to ensure that the public, everyone in society, has the best opportunity to have the best health outcomes possible,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o when we identify population groups that are not having the health outcomes we would like, it is important 鈥� and speaking for myself it is my duty 鈥� to use my training to do something about these unfair or inequitable situations.鈥�

Deborah Altomare: Taking a Two-Pronged Approach to Fighting Cancer

Cancer cells have main pathways they use to interact with the environment. Traditional cancer drugs block these main pathways, forcing cells to use far less effective pathways.

Altomare鈥檚 lab is researching how, through a combination of cancer therapies, both pathways can be blocked, disrupting cancer cells鈥� ability to grow and spread to other parts of the body.

鈥淐ancer cells build resistance to traditional therapies by finding new pathways once our drugs have blocked their main ones,鈥� she says. 鈥淗owever, if we can use other drugs, which block these lesser used pathways, in combination with the traditional ones, we have a therapy that can be effective against resistant cancers.鈥�

麻豆原创鈥檚 breast cancer researchers have earned over $2 million in grants for their work, including from the Florida Breast Cancer Research Foundation and proceeds from NCAA football鈥檚 Cure Bowl in Orlando. While the team is small in number, 鈥渨e have the intellect, creativity and energy to compete with the big guys,鈥� Khaled says. 鈥淥ur scientists are original thinkers with new cutting-edge ideas.鈥�

To learn more about the 麻豆原创 College of Medicine鈥檚 cancer research.