Propelling cancer drug discovery
When man’s best friend develops cancer, veterinarians often use human medications to treat them, because dogs and humans share deep biological similarities. This creates an opportunity for both species to help each other, through comparative studies, said Elizabeth Maxwell, D.V.M., a surgical oncologist at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine.
Maxwell has teamed up with the robotic drug discovery group at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology on studies of the aggressive skin cancer melanoma, and a type of bone cancer that’s rare in humans, but more common in dogs, called osteosarcoma.
“By comparing drug responses across canine and human cancer cell lines, we can identify shared therapeutic strategies that will benefit both species,” said Maxwell, a member of the UF Health Cancer Institute’s Cancer Targeting and Therapeutics research program.
Maxwell’s proposal is one of 18 selected for the Cancer High Throughput Screening Drug Discovery Initiative underway at The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute, in partnership with the UF Health Cancer Institute. Sharing UF grant support of $340,000, UF scientists are teaming up with experts at The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute to target cancer’s biological mysteries and seek potential drug leads for many cancer types. Projects underway address cancers caused by viruses, leukemia, breast, lung, skin, bone, head, neck, colorectal cancers and more.