University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Professor Receives $3 Million in grants for Genomic Research for Cancer Treatments

Rachel Patton McCord, associate professor of biochemistry and cellular and molecular biology in University of Tennessee, Knoxville's College of Arts and Sciences, researches human chromosome structure, how it changes in diseases like cancer and the premature aging disease Progeria and the impact of radiation on cells and their DNA.

The valuable impact of this research has earned more than $3 million in funding support, including a recent Department of Energy award of $1 million for three years and a continued $2 million National Institutes of Health MIRA award.

"The past five years of NIH funding in my lab have really laid the groundwork for what my lab is working on now," said McCord. "We have many different project areas looking at how chromosomes fold up inside the nucleus and are getting pushed into the wrong places by different stresses and diseases. That's part of what's going wrong in cancer cells, especially those that are metastasizing."

Grant Supports Combined Research Strength

The team's work on DNA damage in cancer cells led to the DOE grant and collaborations with Oak Ridge National Lab to research how low doses of radiation affect cells and their chromosomes. McCord and team established these collaborations through the UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute Convergent Research Initiative (CRI), which brings together experts from UT, the UT Health Science Center in Memphis and ORNL.

This DOE grant focuses on the cellular effects of common, low-dose radiation—which could include radon exposure, medical X-rays or CT scans or occupational settings.

"The DOE grant is, in many ways, a first concrete step toward the larger collaboration that we are establishing with the CRI," said McCord. "Our big goal for the future is to figure out how to send radioactive particles specifically to the right place to treat cancer—targeted radiotherapy. We're also building teams of experts in the simulations, computations and experiments and connecting with patients to push forward some innovative approaches to cancer treatment."

The new connections and combined skills increase the potential impact of McCord's ongoing fundamental research under the NIH funding.

"I'm very excited about the possibility of taking our results about how chromosomes fold and change as cancer cells become metastatic and being able to ask, 'Can we now start to find treatments that would change the chromosome structure and affect how the cells behave?'" said McCord. "I'm interested in discovering what we can do to change the fate of the cancer cells, and to understand why some cancers become more aggressive in the first place."

Broad Research Perspectives Benefit Students

McCord also appreciates the opportunity to bring students into these rich research endeavors.

"I don't have to struggle to recruit students to work in my lab," said McCord. "We have so many undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in this and who are excited to do this work."

The challenge of working toward world-changing medical breakthroughs offers new opportunities for students to gain leadership in competitive fields, supports the growth of Tennessee's workforce and can lead to better health care for Tennesseans. Funding for research with potential applications in understanding and fighting disease is especially significant given Tennessee's above-average rates of both cancer incidence and cancer mortality.

"It's exciting to have this capacity to bring more people into this space," said McCord. "For our students to be able to be involved in this cutting-edge research—they don't have to go to Boston or California to do this work. I do have a sense of pride that we're bringing this to UT."

Provided by University of Tennessee at Knoxville