IUPUI Researcher Earns Grant to Study Pancreatic Cancer
A Purdue Associate Professor has been awarded a National Institutes of Health grant to focus on one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Chien-Chi Lin’s research focuses on pancreatic cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of 8 percent, and is projected to be the second leading cause of all cancer-related deaths by 2030.
Lin’s project, "BRAVE Hydrogels for Interrogating Cell-Matrix Interactions in Pancreatic Desmoplasia" is trying to identify targeted medicines to block the growth and spread of the cancer by disrupting molecules. He uses hydrogels to study how pancreatic cancer cells multiply and move, and adds that they eventually could be used to test medicines. Lin uses gelatin and hyaluronic acid to create artificial tumor tissue to mimic the development timeline of the tumor cells.
"This grant comes at a great time to propel my research to the next level. I couldn’t be more excited about it," said Lin.
Results of Lin’s work could provide awareness into cancer cell migration, along with a potential to target against metastasis.