Research seminar series to address prostate cancer

Zongbing You, M.D., Ph.D., professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Structural & Cellular Biology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, is May's guest speaker for the Department of Pathology's Research Seminar Series.  

He will present "Interleukin-17 and Prostate Cancer" at noon on Thursday, May 19, in the Strada Patient Care Center conference room. Lunch will be served. 

A major focus of You's research is to understand the role of inflammation in cancer initiation, promotion and progression. His target molecule in inflammation is interleukin-17, a key cytokine in many inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. 

For more information, contact Patrick Carlisle at 251-471-7753 or pcarlisle@health.southalabama.edu.

Meet a Ph.D. Student: Marlo Thompson

Marlo Thompson

Age: 28

Hometown: Hampton Roads, Virginia

Undergraduate/graduate institutions and degrees earned: B.S in biology from the University of Virginia; M.S in biology from Old Dominion University

BMS Program track and year of study: Third year in Cancer Biology

What research are you involved in?
My research focuses on DNA repair proteins, specifically the DNA glycosylase NEIL1.

What do you enjoy most about being a doctoral student at the USA College of Medicine? I have gotten to meet many people I never would have otherwise (like fellow Ph.D. student Amanda Tuckey).

What are your interests and hobbies outside of school and work?
I foster dogs on and off with a foster-based rescue in Mobile called Wags and Whiskers. To add to that chaos, I have three dogs and two cats of my own. I am also a member of the CrossFit Mobile gym. It has been a great place for me to relieve stress and maintain my mental health. The whole community is so accepting, and it has quickly become my favorite place to be. When we have the time, my husband and I are big into board games. A couple of my favorites include Betrayal (at House on the Hill), Mysterium, Sagrata and Gloomhaven.

Pathology faculty and researchers present at AACR meeting

Postdoctoral researchers Srijan Acharya, Ph.D., Shashi Anand, Ph.D., Sarabjeet Kour Sudan, Ph.D., and Amod Sharma, Ph.D., attend the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.

Faculty and cancer researchers from the USA Department of Pathology and the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute joined thousands of scientists from around the world at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting, held recently in New Orleans. They presented a total of eight posters that covered findings on multiple cancer types, including breast, gastric, lung, pancreatic and prostate, focusing on different biological aspects of disease.

Srijan Acharya, Ph.D.

Srijan Acharya, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher, presented two posters concerning prostate cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related death in American men. In one poster, he presented data pertaining to the mechanisms underlying opposing roles of androgen signaling in prostate cancer. In the second one, he described molecular factors related to racial disparities in incidence and clinical outcome in patients with prostate cancer. He received the Young Investigator Award in the postdoctoral category by the American Association of Indian Scientists in Cancer Research (AAISCR) for his research findings.  

Shashi Anand, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher, presented findings from his research on pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, which accounts for more than 90% of pancreatic cancer cases, is highly aggressive and resistant to treatment. Anand examined how the MYB gene plays an essential role in the survival of pancreatic cancer cells under hypoxia, a state of low oxygen levels in the cancer tissues. 

Sarabjeet Kour Sudan, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher, presented her research on breast cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related death in American women. When compared with white women, Black women have earlier onset of breast cancer, are frequently diagnosed with aggressive triple-negative subtype, and have higher mortality rates. She discussed the interplay of social and biological factors that may be linked to these health disparities.

Amod Sharma, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher, explored how cortisol, the primary stress hormone, has an immunosuppressive effect that can contribute to cancer development via indirect mechanism. In his poster presentation, he discussed how cortisol affects macrophage polarization via reprogramming of glucose metabolism.

Sandeep Goswami, Ph.D.

Sandeep Goswami, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher, presented findings from his research on gastric cancer. He examined how the loss of KLF4, a transcription factor protein, results in disruption of epithelial barrier function in gastric cancer and promotes metastasis. Gastric cancer is potentially curable when diagnosed early with survival rates of more than 90%. This number, however, sharply declines to less than 20% when diagnosed at advanced stages.

Santanu Dasgupta, Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology, and Shubhangi Singh, a pre-med student at the University of South Alabama, presented posters on lung cancer research. In 2020, the disease killed 1.8 million people worldwide and 136,000 people in the United States. 

Dasgupta discussed the findings from his group on the role of mitochondria in lung cancer development. Despite significant improvement in multimodal therapeutic approaches, the overall five-year survival rate for lung cancer patients is only 21.7%. Findings from his research may open up novel avenues for therapeutic and biomarker interventions to improve the overall survival of lung cancer patients.

Singh discussed the differential expression of angiogenesis-associated genes in smoker and non-smoker lung adenocarcinoma patients. This is in continuation of her previous work that she completed at the Mitchell Cancer Institute to show a role of nicotine, an additive component of cigarette smoke, in tumor angiogenesis. 

Pediatric radiologist, alumnus joins faculty at USA College of Medicine

Michael Francavilla, M.D., recently joined USA Health as a pediatric radiologist and serves as an associate professor of radiology at USA College of Medicine.

He received his medical degree and completed an internal medicine internship at USA College of Medicine. After his diagnostic radiology residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida, he completed a pediatric radiology fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“I chose pediatric radiology because the patients are the most vulnerable and yet the most resilient,” Francavilla said. “I focus on reducing radiation whenever possible to decrease their exposure.”

He has published more than 30 research papers and is a contributing author to "Pediatric Urogenital Radiology and Radiology Secrets Plus, 4th Edition." He also is a reviewer for the Pediatric Imaging Section of the Editorial Advisory Board of Applied Radiology.

Francavilla is a member of the American Medical Association, American College of Radiology, Radiological Society of North America, Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine and Society for Pediatric Radiology.

COVID-positive patients asked about intent to vaccinate in local study

Third-year medical students Sarah E. Bouslog, left, and Mary M. Vansant presented an abstract at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in Baltimore in April 2022. The study examined the intent to get vaccinated among COVID-19 positive patients.

In 2020 and 2021, researchers at the USA College of Medicine interviewed hundreds of people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Mobile about their intent to get vaccinated for the virus in a study led by Casey L. Daniel, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor of family medicine and director of epidemiology and public health.

Looking for trends among subgroups, the researchers asked questions over a year’s time, covering demographics, severity of illness, hospital stays and underlying health conditions. They found that women, Black patients and those with higher incomes were significantly less likely to say they planned to get the vaccine – findings that could guide future outreach efforts to increase vaccination.

“We concluded that multilevel interventions are needed to address vaccine hesitancy for the general population and targeted strategies should be implemented to overcome hesitancy barriers for these specific subgroups,” said Sarah Bouslog, a third-year medical student at the USA College of Medicine and one of two students who presented an abstract on the findings at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in Baltimore in April. The abstract was selected for a “Live Research Spotlight” presentation at the prestigious national conference.

The researchers interviewed 513 people who tested positive for COVID-19 through USA Health from April 2020 to May 2021. Asked whether they intended to get the COVID-19 vaccine, 36% of participants said yes, 38% said no, and 25% were unsure.

The data showed that women were less likely than men to say they would get the vaccine; Black people were less likely than white people, and individuals with higher reported annual incomes ($100,000 to $150,000) also were less likely to say they planned to get vaccinated.

The researchers, however, found no significant correlation between vaccine hesitancy and severity of the participants’ illness. “Variables that were not significantly associated with the intent to vaccinate were the type of acute COVID-19 symptoms, hospital or ICU admission, diagnosed co-morbidities and the duration of acute COVID symptoms,” said Mary Vansant, a third-year medical student who also presented the study findings in Baltimore.

Other authors on the study included medical students Juan Pardo, Madeline Tucker and Anna Wright; and USA Health researchers Grace Sullivan, Chelsea Green McGowen and Jenna James.